Bringing the Family Back to the Table

Most American families are starved for time to spend together, and dinner may be the only time of the day when we can reconnect, leaving behind our individual pursuits of work, playing with our electronic devices, emailing and doing homework. Dinner is a time to relax, recharge, laugh, tell stories and catch up on the day’s ups and downs, while developing a sense of who we are as a family. Below are six benefits of having routine family dinners.

1. Researchers found that for young children, dinnertime conversation boosts vocabulary even more than being read aloud to. The researchers counted the number of rare words that the families used during dinner conversation (rare words are those not found on a list of 3,000 most common words used by children). Young kids learned 1,000 rare words at the dinner table, compared to only 143 from parents reading storybooks aloud. Children who have a large vocabulary read earlier and more easily.
2. Older children also reap intellectual benefits from family dinners. For school-age youngsters, regular mealtime is an even more powerful predictor of high achievement scores than time spent in school, doing homework, playing sports or engaging in art.
3. Researchers reported a consistent association between family dinner frequency and teen academic performance. Adolescents who ate family meals five to seven times a week were twice as likely to get A’s in school as those who ate dinner with their families fewer than two times a week.
4. Children who eat regular family dinners also consume more fruits, vegetables, vitamins and micronutrients, as well as fewer fried foods and soft drinks. And the nutritional benefits keep paying dividends even after kids grow up: young adults who ate regular family meals as teens are less likely to be obese and more likely to eat healthily once they live on their own.
5. Americans spend more than 40% of their food budget on meals outside of the home. Eating out can be convenient but it’s also caloric — portion sizes in restaurants just keep growing! The average restaurant meal has as much as 60% more calories than a homemade meal. A study by the Center for Science in the Public Interest found that 97 percent of the children’s meals served in restaurants did not meet the basic nutritional standards for children.
6. In addition, a stack of studies links regular family dinners with lowering a host of high risk teenage behaviors parents fear: smoking, binge drinking, marijuana use, violence, school problems, eating disorders and sexual activity. In one study of more than 5,000 Minnesota teens, researchers concluded that regular family dinners were associated with lower rates of depression and suicidal thoughts.
7. In a very recent study, kids who had been victims of cyberbullying bounced back more readily if they had regular family dinners. Family dinners have been found to be a more powerful deterrent against high-risk teen behaviors than church attendance or good grades.
8. Dinner may be the one time of the day when a parent and child can share a positive experience – a well-cooked meal, a joke, or a story – and these small moments can gain momentum to create stronger connections away from the table. By engaging your children in conversation, you teach them how to listen and provide them with a chance to express their own opinions. This allows your children to have an active voice within the family.
9. This daily mealtime connection is like an insurance policy for children travelling down the road of childhood and adolescence and all its possible dangers. Teens who have five to seven family meals per week report that their parents are very good at listening to them.
10. Some families engage in family prayers, or blessing of the food based on their beliefs. Taking part in this type of activity creates another special family bond. It delves into the personal, spiritual side of the parents, and provides them an opportunity share their humble feelings with the family. Holding hands during this time takes the family bond even further. I personally still look forward to sitting beside my Father and holding his hand as the blessing of the food is offered. This process is a direct way to nurture your family’s mind, body and spirit.

Research Resources for “Bringing the Family Back to the Table”