Parenting experts have advocated it for years, and more families now may be catching on to the importance of sitting down for a regular meal together.
A nationwide survey by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University in New York found that the number of children ages 12 to 17 who ate dinner with their families at least five times a week rose from 47 percent in 1998 to 58 percent last year.
“There’s definitely an awareness that was not there a few years ago,” Miriam Weinstein, author of a book on the power of family meals, told The New York Times. “All the factors that have been working against family dinners are still in full force, but it’s very much a subject on people’s minds.”
Those factors mostly include the packed daily schedules of both children and parents, but more families appear to be finding ways to overcome them.
“People are really starting to understand that this is an important thing,” Richard D. Mulieri, a spokesman for CASA, said. “Families that do have dinner together often are families whose parents are fully engaged with their kids.”
Children who eat dinner with their families regularly are less likely to get involved with drugs and alcohol than those who do not, studies have shown, and they tend to get better grades, exhibit less stress and eat better, The Times noted. (BP)
Share with others: