Do you want to ensure that your kids grow up healthy and have strong bonds with you and with each other? With one simple action, you can help bring your family closer together! Want to know the secret?
Have family dinners as often as possible. Even if your busy schedule only allows a few each week, all of you will benefit from gathering for meals together.
The Importance of Family Dinners
1. Connect with your children. Family dinners are a time to enjoy each other’s company and love. By fostering pleasant and friendly conversation, everyone gets a chance to talk and listen to each other. Eating together makes it much easier to keep up with what’s going on in your children’s lives.
2. Encourage healthy eating. Set a good example by providing balanced meals with plenty of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and lean protein. Explain why broiling fish is healthier than frying it. Kids who learn what sensible portions look like will be less vulnerable to becoming overweight.
3. Improve your children’s emotional well-being. Many studies confirm that children who eat with their families have dramatically lower risks for depression, substance abuse, suicide, and premarital sexual activity. When you keep daily communication flowing, your kids are more likely to feel loved and to come to you with sensitive issues.
4. Reduce stress. Family dinners help relieve stress for both parents and children. Give yourselves time to relax after the tensions that build up at work and school. Then you can settle down to homework or a movie with a clear mind.
5. Teach social skills. Meals are about more than food. Young people need opportunities to practice table manners and polite conversation long before they tackle their first business lunch.
6. Help your kids get better grades. Studies also show that kids do better in school when they grow up in homes where family dinners are a routine. It’s one more sign that involved parents are key to a good education. Younger children get a big boost in language skills and vocabulary by talking with adults and older siblings.
7. Save money. Meals at home are much less expensive than eating out. The money you save on dinner can help pay for family vacations and college tuition.
Dawn Corbett is a driven, self-motivated, elementary educator, and a molder of young minds. She has taught in public education for twenty plus years. Creating original content is something that she is passionate about and gets excited about. She knows the value of confidentiality, cooperation, and being a team player. Working as an editor and blog writer has given her a valuable opportunities to develop her own intellect and a different perspective on how to respectfully communicate with others in different styles.