Magic tips for your family dinner

“ All the things you worry about as a parent can be improved just by sitting down to regular dinner.”

- Laurie David

The problem:

- Less and less families having sit down dinners

- Today families spend 12 min. per week one on one without any TV time or other electronic devices

- Parents have longer work hours ( work following them home)

- Kids have more homework to do and activities to attend

- Dinner time has become prime time for anything, but eating

- Home cooking has become a luxury

Did you know?

Children who eat dinner with their families are less likely to drink, smoke, do drugs, get pregnant, commit suicide or develop eating disorder.

Children how enjoy family meals have larger vocabularies, better manners, eat healthier, have higher self-esteem.

Family meals has more influential than time spent in school, attending activities, studying or playing games or sports.

A study from UNICEF determined that Americans ranked 23 out of 25 countries when it came to 15 years old who eat dinner with their parents at least “ several times a week”. Fewer than ⅔ of Americans answered “yes”, compared to more than 90% of Italians, French, Dutch and Swiss.

More shocking statistic comes from the Center on Everyday Lives of Families at UCLA, which has taped every middle-class families have done over many years. The families in their study dined together only 17% of the time, even when everybody was home.

The solution:

- Make family meals time mandatory

- No time for dinners, move it to a family breakfast or Saturday/ Sunday dinners

- Plan your weekly meals ahead

- When you cook, double the portions, have it as a leftover

- Absolutely no TV , phones, computers during the meal

- Play some music during the meal, light a candle, put a flowers on the table, make it special

- Through food you can make people happy - its all about spending quality time together and get to know your children

- Let your kids talk half of the time

- Teach them something new every time you are having a meal

- Tell your kids old stories about their grandparents, relatives or about you

- Make family meal fun and joy

- Do not judge your children of your partner during meals

- Once a week let your kids to decide the manu of the day

- Include your kids in family meals time ( setting up the table, serving dishes, cleaning up..)

“Cooking it’s like love, it should be entered into with abandon or not at all.”

- Harriet Van Horne

#familydinner #parentingtips