How is the dinner time like in your home?

Do the family members heat up their own meal in the microwave and have them whenever they feel like it?

Having meals together has become a thing of the past. Families used to gather around and have at least two meals together, breakfast and dinner. Blame it to the busy lives, independence or family conflicts. We are forgetting the benefits of family meal time, its a very effective way to keep the communications door open avoid conflicts and raise healthy and smart children. It’s the perfect time and place to reconnect and to show your kids that they are your priority. In the recent years, if you seek parenting advice or ask for family counseling, they will stress the need for family meal times. Many researchers have pointed out the health benefits, academic benefits and overall child development directly related to family mealtime.

Sitting across the table is where and when you can find out more about your children’s likes, dislikes, and daily life. Having this information can help you direct your children toward positive activities and behavior. Sharing family meals also offers nutrition benefits. Parents always serve as role models, observing you having healthy meals and nutritious meals, kids tend to do the same. Experts believe that if families would gather around the dinner table more often, the benefits to children such as improved academic performance and higher self-esteem would abound. Change the attitude, dinner table should serve as more than the dinner table, strike a conversation, talk about each others lives and each others day, and rediscover each family member.

Research shows that for preschoolers, family mealtime is one of the most important times to connect with parents. Good mealtime habits formed early will benefit children throughout life. Children spending more time at the family meals tend to eat less junk and more healthy food. A study done at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital found that those teens who ate with family members an average of at least five times a week, were less likely to fall victim of eating disorder and other risky addictions as alcohol and drugs. Family conversations at the dinner table also help kids to have strong family connections and avoid the risk of falling victim to depression.

Benefits of family meal time go beyond the behavior trends of your kids and teens, they even affect the academic results of your kids. Studies conducted at Columbia University also found that teens who ate regular frequent family dinners were 40% more likely to get A’s and B’s in school than teenagers whose families ate separately.

Tips to promote family mealtime:

• Do your shopping weekly, so you have enough time to prepare meals.

• Involve kids in the shopping. Gives you an idea what kids want to eat. They will like to eat things when there choice is available.

• Avoid shopping junk food. Shop for healthy snacks and fruits for after school snack.

• Involve kids in the cooking process, it will save time as well as teach kids about healthy cooking.

• Don’t force kids to eat more.

• Turn the TV off and have a family conversation.

• Linger over the conversation and the food over the table, just to spend time together.

• Let eating together become one of the threads that holds the fabric of the family together. Make commitment and time to sit down for family dinner at least two to three times a week.

Check out these helpful articles on benefits of family meal time.

Get involved: Importance of family mealtime
Family mealtime article by West Virginia University
Free “Make mealtime family time kit”Study by Columbia    University: The Importance of Family Dinners IV