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Last night I gave a talk at a Parents of Teens Safety Seminar at Xavier High School in Appleton. It was a great opportunity to learn about protecting our children from physical attacks and internet predators, and how to keep our teens lawful. My presentation, while not focused on safety, was on the importance of keeping dinner time for family time and how it benefits our children. In case you missed it, here are a few thoughts and statistics I found in a June 2006 Time magazine article: - Studies show that the more often families eat together, the less likely kids are to smoke, drink, do drugs, get depressed, develop eating disorders and consider suicide, and the more likely they are to do well in school, delay having sex, eat their vegetables, learn big words and know which fork to use.
- In a study of family eating patterns published by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University researchers found essentially that family dinner gets better with practice; the less often a family eat together, the worse the experience is likely to be, the less healthy the food and more meager the talk.
- Kids who eat most often with their parents are 40% more likely to say they get mainly A's and B's in school than kids who have two or fewer family dinners a week.
- A study in the Archives of Family Medicine found that more family meals tends to mean that we consume less soda and fried foods and far more fruits and vegetables.
- Meals together send the message that citizenship in a family entails certain standards beyond individual whims. This is where a family builds its identity and culture. Legends are passed down, jokes rendered, eventually the wider world examined through the lens of a family's values. In addition, younger kids pick up vocabulary and a sense of how conversation is structured. They hear how a problem is solved, learn to listen to other people's concerns and respect their tastes.
- Parents may be undervaluing themselves when the conclude that sending kids off to every conceivable extracurricular activity is a better use of time than an hour spent around a table, just talking to Mom and Dad.
- When kids help prepare a meal, they are much more likely to eat it, and it's a useful skill that seems to build self-esteem.
If you'd like to read the whole article ,go to: www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1200760,00.html
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