Chew On This

dbrannon1
Sep 12, 2016
2 min read

September 12, 2016 | Christian Sims, MAT

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Family dinner time - it’s one of the most essential parts of a family’s day, yet it can be practically impossible to orchestrate given our very complex, hectic, and time-centered lives. There is a plethora of research out there to support the multitude of benefits for kids and their parents to have regular family dinners during the week. We all know that it’s a good thing, but why is it good, and how does it make a difference?

According to research, regular family dinner time results in mental, physical, and emotional benefits in ways such as:

Boosting vocabulary in young children
Increasing achievement scores in older children
Encouraging healthy food choices as kids grow older
Increasing desirable behaviors in teenagers while lowering more risky behaviors
Improving interpersonal connections between parent and child away from the dinner table

The Family Dinner Project (http://thefamilydinnerproject.org/) is an organization that provides families with ideas for meals, conversations, and family fun centered around meal time. The organization realizes the importance of those connections made at the dinner table and offers resources and support to families who find this time to also be a pivotal moment in their day.

One of the most challenging parts of family meal time for me is usually what to ask my kids and my husband, aside from the lackluster “So, how was your day?” After working all day, coming home to prepare dinner, taking the dog for a walk, checking through my kids’ school stuff, and figuring out what I can cram into the next 2 hours that have been inappropriately tagged my “downtime,” my brain cells fight each other to come up with a unique question for my family to instigate conversation. Therefore, I rely heavily on suggestions for conversation starters, which I keep on strips of paper in a jar on the kitchen counter (thanks to a gift from my neighbor!). Just some food for thought…try it out!