Family life is busy, busy, busy. Parents often spend their days dashing from work to kids' sports practices, unable to relax even at home because they need to take care of household tasks like laundry and cleaning. That doesn't leave parents and kids much time to spend together as a family. In fact, a recent study found that the average family spends just 37 minutes of quality time together during the week.
One of the best ways to increase quality time—and improve family life overall—is to make time for at least one family meal per day.
1. Family Meals Teach Kids Important Life Skills
Kids are more likely to eat meals that they have helped prepare. In addition to eating dinner together, make cooking it a family affair by letting kids help plan meals, shop for groceries, and even chop up vegetables.
Spending time together while focusing on other tasks can make it easier to have tough discussions. Food preparation also teaches kids important life skills, such as budgeting, grocery shopping, and healthy cooking techniques.
2. Family Meals Model Healthy Eating
Eating together as a family isn't just beneficial for your mental health—it's good for your physical health as well. Family dinners are associated with a higher consumption of nutritious foods like fruits and vegetables.
A study by JAMA Network found that eating together as a family is associated with a more healthy diet overall. When they eat more meals with their parents, children and teens are more likely to eat a larger portion of fruits and vegetables, while consuming less fast food and fewer sugary beverages.
3. Family Meals Help You Connect
There's a popular parenting adage: The days are long, but the years are short. It can be hard to find time to connect as a family when everyone is continually running from one obligation to the next. Homework, work, and household chores can easily take up the few hours between the end of school or work and bedtime.
Taking a few minutes to sit down together and eat dinner gives you time to connect as a family. It's a great time to share successes, talk through challenges, and offer your children support for troubling situations.
4. Family Meals Improve Communication Skills
Children learn how to communicate through practice, and dinnertime is a low-stress place for them to put those communication and social skills to work. Eating dinner together as a family can expose children to a larger vocabulary, help them better understand social cues, and even improve their behavior. Just being exposed to their parents talking about their workday can positively impact children's communication skills.
A study by the University of Montreal found that children in families who eat dinner together regularly tend to have better social skills and are less likely to be physically aggressive or oppositional.
5. Family Meals Help Picky Eaters Expand Their Horizons
Eating the same meals over and over again isn't just boring—it's bad for your health. The best diet is one that is varied and heavy on fruits and vegetables. If your kids are picky eaters, the solution might be more family dinners that focus on trying out new cuisines.
Make family dinner fun by choosing a different country or region and exploring its culinary traditions. For example, host an Italian night. You could serve an obvious selection like spaghetti and meatballs, or go for a (slightly) more adventurous dish, such as Caprese chicken. If you don't know how to cook a particular cuisine, order your favorite dishes from a local restaurant and then choose a new dish or two to share.
Exploring new cuisines is a great way to get yourself out of a dinner rut and help your kids learn how to appreciate different flavors and textures.
Final Thoughts
Eating together as a family can positively impact you and your family's physical and mental health. But remember, eating together doesn't mean you have to spend an hour or longer whipping up a home-cooked meal from scratch.
If your evenings are too busy for cooking, consider ordering takeout, or even eating breakfast together. Focus on making the limited time you have with your kids quality time, by discussing everyone's day, sharing achievements, talking about a favorite book, or debating cultural issues.
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