Wednesday 24 July 2013

Families That Eat Dinner Together

By Lori Buenavista


Everyday living with small children is busy. In between homework, soccer practice, piano lessons and driving them throughout the state, parents still have to work, get the laundry done, wash the car, trim the yard, take the dog to the vet and still find a few hours to sleep. Helping to make dinner and sitting down as a family often gets disregarded in favor of hurrying through a drive-through and wolfing down chicken nuggets on the way to the next lesson or errand. Although it can be challenging to obtain the time, eating together as a family has numerous benefits. Here are 5 of them, with some tips to make it happen.

Teens get into less trouble.

Studies have demonstrated that teens that eat regularly with their families are unlikely to smoke marijuana or tobacco, consume alcohol, or be depressed. Getting yourself into regular, casual communication during meals makes kids more comfortable to talk to you about tough problems during other times.

Children are much healthier.

Junk food and junk food leads to being overweight, and the trend amongst even young children is quickly growing. Eating dinner at home, or at a bistro that offers healthy alternatives is much better for everyone's wellness.

Kids learn communication abilities

During family dinner, set aside the mobile phones, net books and tablets. Kids spend time and effort communicating without truly talking, thanks to technologies. During family dinners, you'll have discussions about things that matter and learn about each other's lives. Ask each loved one to tell something about his/her day.

Everybody can practice excellent table etiquette.

Bolting down a cheeseburger while traveling in the car doesn't help your kid learn proper dining etiquette-which can be a problem when he gets older and has to attend business meals! Eating together is a great opportunity to work on basic table manners-placing the napkin within your lap, using eating utensils properly, not yelling with your mouth full. Patterning etiquette doesn't need to involve discipline and criticism-kids will imitate your good etiquette with a little bit of delicate support.

Taste buds are established and expanded.

Eating together is a good possibility to try new food items together. While your young children may need to be exposed to a new kind of food several times, after awhile they'll expand their repertoire to contain not only Mac-n-cheese.

How to make it Happen

Dining with each other needs a bit of pre-planning and organization. Below are great tips: Plan meals with one another on weekends and grocery shop ahead of time. Treat your family to a food at a nice eating place. No cooking-just exceptional conversation. Teach older children how to arrange meals and put them on top of things from time to time. Have some simple and fast recipes that you can fall back on during busy evenings. Find other family members or welcome your own relatives to eat with your family occasionally. Have potluck so everyone only has to put together one particular item.




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