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Are family dinners something of the past, or is it a necessary ritual?
When I was growing up, most of our meals took place around the kitchen table. I remember kneeling on my chair, eagerly listening to everyone’s stories, barely noticing if the spaghetti sauce had mushrooms hidden in it and always willing to try something new—as long as my older sister was eating it.
These days, gathering an entire family around the table can be a complicated affair. With mealtimes being pushed back to accommodate work or after-school activities, parents and kids often eat their meals at different times.
And this time of year—when it doesn’t even seem possible to fit everything on the schedule into an eight-day week, let alone seven—family dinners are one of the first things that many of us brush off.
If you’ve read parenting magazines before, you’ll know that making the effort to break bread as a family has many benefits for children. Kids absorb everything from family history, to how to participate in a conversation, to an open-minded attitude about new food when they join us at the table. And teens that eat with their families are less likely to use drugs or develop eating disorders.
Family dinner isn’t supposed to be another guilt trip for parents though (no one’s suggesting you throw together the big Sunday night roast dinner of yore on a daily basis). If you’re not sure how to fit it into your schedule, check in over at blogforfamilydinner.org.
From September 26, 2011 (Family Day, CASA) to October 24, 2011 (Food Day, CSPI), that blog will feature daily posts that explore the benefits of family dinner, while acknowledging the challenges busy families face.
If you need a few more reasons to make the effort, consider this:
Do you fit family dinner into your schedule? How do you make it work?