Family Dinner

The classic family dinner, where you sit around the table with your family and talk about how your day went.  How many of you still have family dinner?  Research suggests that children who take part in family meals are less likely to be overweight, eat more healthy foods, have less delinquency, greater academic achievement, improved psychological well-being, and positive family interactions.  Wow!  Talk about a bag full of tricks to help your kids.  Especially when it comes to something that is really easy to do or not to do.

I grew up in a household where we either ate at the table with the family or we went to bed hungry.  And as you could imagine, with 7 siblings, it was very difficult to round everyone up to eat.  It definitely would've been easier for people to grab some food and head somewhere else to eat.  But my mom always made it a point to gather as a family.

What I love about family dinner time is that it was a great time to learn about each other.  You get to hear what your brother and sisters were up to, and hear a good story or two.  These days, with all my siblings grown up with their own families, we get together as often as time permits to gather and celebrate, typically a b-day.  And usually our conversations over the table revert back to what we use to do as a family when we were younger.  We laugh, tell jokes, and just enjoy each other's company.

Now that I live back home with my parents, I get to experience the family dinner each Sunday night.  We gather with my parents, and sometimes some other siblings come over to participate.  I can tell you, by practicing having family dinner's when I was younger, has helped me draw closer to my family members.  Probably wasn't just the family dinners, but it did help!  And of course, it's something that we try to implement in our own family.  With a newborn, it can be difficult since you have to work around his schedule.  But I can tell you that as soon as he is on a regular feeding schedule, we'll be having family dinners!

If you are struggling with unifying your family, perhaps try doing an occasional family dinner.  Have everyone gather around the table and just talk about each other's days.  The evidence is there that it can only help, and I'm walking proof that it worked for my family.  This is just another thing that I believe wholeheartedly to bring balance in your life needs to be done.  Things are always better together as a family vs trying to do it on your own.

What are your thoughts about family dinners?