Family Dinner

One of the simplest and most effective ways for parents to be engaged in their teens lives is by having frequent family dinners.

There is a strong connection between family dinner and academic performance, stress and self-esteem.

Frequent family dinners ( five times a week) are associated with lower rates of teen smoking, drinking and drug use.

Teens that have family dinner are more likely to say that their parents are proud of them and to go to their parents with a serious problem.

Teens who have 7 family meals a week are almost 40% more likely to get As and Bs in school. Family dinners... a fantastic thing!

I found the above statement on another blog and when I read it I thought there must be some kind of truth to this....Here is how my family grew up and this is how Joe and I have always done things at our house..I have a few friends that also follow this same practice about dinner and their kids see to fit the above profile too..

 

Dinner rules when I was growing up:

Momma cooked

We all gathered around the table and ate as a family ( let me tell you , when Momma said "supper is ready" you better drop what you were doing and get to the table )

Dinner time was not a time for negative discussions or punishment

No body started to eat till EVERYBODY was seated and ready( this especially meant mom cause usuallly she was still getting the last min stuff on the table.

There was no singing at the dining room table ( not sure why that was a rule, but it was)

We were never made to eat stuff we didnt like.  At least try it but never made to eat it if we didnt like it.

Prayer wasnt always said at supper ( well sometimes my grandpa would say some kind of funny grace like .Good food Good meat Good God lets eat)

Nobody left the table till everybody was finished and you didnt dare start cleaning the table till everyone was finished eating

My mom put all the food she cooked in bowls and put it on the table.

We always had a meat, veg, bread and a dessert

 

NOW DINNER AT THE BRIDWELL's

 

Most of the same rules applied:

I cooked most of our dinners with the exception of baseball nights ( we still ate together even if it was takeout or concession stand)

I dont put all the dinner on table , in fact we barely used our dining room table , we mostly would sit around our coffee table ( but we were still together)   I did buffet style unless it was a Holiday dinner , then I put it all out.

We have meat ,veggie, bead , salad and dessert

BUT :

We all waited on each other to eat

We dont sing at the table

We dont talk about negative or punishment

We dont talk on cell phones or text

We dont answer the phone if it rings

AND WHEN MOMMA SAYS TIME TO EAT YOU BETTER GET YOUR BUTTS TO THE TABLE !!!!!!!!!!

 

and guess what:

kids dont smoke

they are both A/B students

they both have self esteem

they both know that mom and dad are proud of them

What's your tradition?

 

 

 

Comments

[Jax]

I agree wholeheartedly.
Just the three of us, but we eat dinner together 99.9% of the time.
We sit down at our kitchen table.......food on the table now that J is old enough not to touch hot stuff.

I will keep you posted on the grades, but he sure is NOT lacking in the self esteem dept.

We ate together growing up-I made salad and set the table, daddy made dinner and lil bro cleared the table.
J clears table already and helps with dishes. John does the dishes when I cook and vice versa.

Dinner together IS a good thing.

[melanie]

thanks for sharing