The Family Dinner: 3 Tips On How To Make It More Than Protein And Starches
You are probably careful to make sure that your family dinner consists of some starch, carbohydrates, and protein for your family’s meals to be healthy and nutritious . But did you know that a family dinner together benefits your family in a much deeper way. A study done by National Center on Addiction and substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University concludes that “kids who eat most often with their parents are 40% more likely to get mainly A’s and B’s in school than kids who have two or fewer family dinners a week.” In this article I will present to you 4 tips on how to make your family dinner enjoyable and productive.
1. Be careful to keep the atmosphere of the family dinner cheerful and upbeat. Do not use this time to lecture or to punish; when this must be done, do it later on in the night or before the meal. The goal of the family dinner is to bond not to punish. Listen to each other and laugh with each other. If it is light and engaging your children will want to participate and they won’t look for excuses to get out of eating together with the whole family.
2. Don’t dominate the conversation but give everyone a chance to speak. Everyone likes to say something and to be heard. This, of course, is true only when they feel safe and are not worried of being ridiculed and made fun of. Therefore, give all members of the family, no matter how young, a chance to say what is on their mind and everyone else should listen to them without ridiculing or mocking. Besides this, show them that you are really listening to them and that they are not simply speaking to the walls of the kitchen. Nod your head at the appropriate times and use active listening to show them that what they say is important to you.
3.No radios, texting, Ipods, etc. at the family dinner. The purpose of having the family dinner together is to emotionally bond together as a family unit. Just to be together physically is not the goal. Therefore make sure that everyone is connecting with each other. When a person is busy texting their friend then although their body is in the kitchen with the rest of the family their mind is with their friend. This defeats the whole purpose of the family dinner being spent together.
You are right for making sure that the whole family stays healthy by giving them nutritious meals. Keep it up. However, there is another side benefit you will receive when the whole family eats dinner together; the whole family will fuse into a connected unit. Create a happy atmosphere at the family dinner and the whole family will be not only physically healthy but also emotionally strong.
For more tips on how to enhance or improve your family relationships go to the “Fix Up Your Family” video library.
Click here to get FREE access to the library and learn practical tips, techniques,and strategies to help you build family relationships and successfully deal with family problems.
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