By Andy Merrett 
Sep 22, 2007

September 24: Family Day – A Day To Eat Together With Your Children

I’ve written before about the importance of families eating together whenever they can. It can bond the family together, aid communication, and could help teens avoid social problems, amongst many other benefits.

The Kroger Company has partnered with The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse to encourage families to share a meal together this coming Monday, 24th September, to celebrate Family Day: A Day To Eat Together With Your Children.

Their research consistently suggests that the more children eat together with their parents, the less likely they are to take drugs, drink, or smoke. Of course, it takes more than eating together to achieve that, but it’s a great reason to start.

They offer six tips for encouraging and keeping shared mealtimes:

1. Start the pattern of family meals when children are young.
2. Encourage children to create menu ideas and participate in meal preparation.
3. Talk about what happened in everyone’s day:  school, work, extracurricular activities and current events.
4. Keep conversation positive and make sure everyone gets a chance to speak.
5. Turn off the TV and let your answering machine answer calls during family meals.
6. After the meal, serve dessert or play a board game to encourage the family to continue the conversation.

“Sharing meals together as a family is a simple, powerful and effective tool to help children and teens avoid risky behaviors. Family meals are an ideal time to talk with your children and listen to what’s on their mind. We support Family Day because building strong, healthy families is at the core of our business,” said David B. Dillon, Kroger chairman and chief executive officer.

Continued below...

In related news, TV Land will “go dark” between 6pm and 7pm (ET/PT) on the day, to encourage families to dine together.

Viewers tuning in to The Family Day Dinner Hour will see photos submitted to TVLand.com of various families sharing meals and spending time together. Packaged like a scrapbook, the hour will display montages of the photos along with Family Day graphics, all set to easy-listening Americana and Jazz music.

www.casafamilyday.org

Related Posts

• Girls who eat with their families less likely to do extreme diets
• Back to school tips for helping your child manage peer pressure
• Early learning of good eating habits requires good parental role model
• More problem kids than 50 years ago, study suggests
• Teens and pre-teens increase cell phone use during the summer