With the New Year it never fails to hear people making resolutions for better health, saving money and finding love or improving relationships. You want to know the one simple magic act that can do all three? Something that can improve the quality of your daily life, increase the chances of success for your children, better your health and quality of relationships. It is something as simple and inexpensive and it’s well within the reach of everyone’s abilities, it’s a family meal.
If you have been following me for a while, you know that to me family meal is an act of dining together to creating connection and memories. This is one of the most important things to me. With a 3-month-old in the house, I have to be honest: our family meals look a lot different than they used to. I am not cooking quite as much but relying on previously made freezer meals and my husband Joey has been helping out which is a whole new cooking experience in it’s self. Even with the new challenges it is still important to me that we create a family mealtime. There are so many benefits of a family meal that it is worth the small amount of effort for the long-term benefits. I know currently my son does not know or care that we have family meals but it is never too early to start the practice and create a routine to take part in the benefits of a family meal.
8 Benefits of a Family Meal
- Saving Money
Preparing meals at home costs less. You will spend less money and get higher quality food when eating at home. It costs about $25 for a family of four to buy a meal at a typical fast food restaurant. Averaging just two trips per week totals $50; continuing the pattern each week over the course of a full year comes to $2600.
A daily fast food lunch runs at least $5; in a typical five day workweek, that’s $25. Over the course of a year, $1300. Just for lunch. Just for one person.
- Better Manners
Coming together provides adults a chance to set good examples and teach about social skills, table manners and essential life skills like being kind to others, how to have basic polite conversation and setting and clearing the table.
- Healthy Communication
Sharing a meal together helps foster healthy communication studies show that teens who share in a family meal are less likely to be depressed and more likely to be motivated to learn.
- Healthy Habits
Eating meals together means you are more likely to eat healthier foods. Families that eat together are less likely to dine out consuming less fried food and sugar-filled beverages and are more likely to consume fruits, vegetables and other healthy foods during dinnertime (Marino & Butkus, n.d.). Some researchers found that eating meals together reduces the risk for being overweight (Forthun, 2008a; FY1059). You can also use this time to introduce basic cooking skills. See benefits of cooking with children.
- Healthier Children
Research shows that children who have regular meals with their parents do better in every way: they tend to have better grades, are more motivated in school, and foster healthier relationships. They are 42 percent less likely to drink, 50 percent less likely to smoke and 66 percent less likely to smoke marijuana. Children and youth who do not eat family meals together are also more likely to report feeling depressed or having trouble at school. (CASA, 2011).
- Stronger Relationships
Sharing a meal together provides time and space to share about your day, inquire about actives, feelings and daily events fostering healthy communication and stronger family bonds.
- Weigh Less
You are more likely to weigh less if you eat at home. USDA researchers have found a positive association with patterns of eating out and body weight due to the higher calorie count and poorer nutritional quality of away-from-home meals and snacks.
- Family Togetherness and Well-being
Creating a family mealtime strengthens the family bonds, for young children it helps create a sense of security and belonging. Eating together allows a space to share in ethnic and cultural identity sharing in traditions. A study from Emory University found that children who knew a lot about their family history, through family meals and other interactions, had a closer relationship to family members, higher self-esteem, and a greater sense of control over their own lives (Duke, Fivush, Lazarus, & Bohanek, 2003).
Family mealtime can look many different ways and does not have to mean dinner. If weekend lunches or breakfast work better for your schedule take advantage of those times. They key is to gather people together and sit down to a meal together without distractions. Stay in touch next week: I will share tips on gathering the family together and How to Host a Meaningful meal.
References
Duke, M.P., Fivush, R., Lazarus, A., & Bohanek, J. (2003). Of ketchup and kin: Dinntertime conversations as a major source of family knowledge, family adjustment, and family resilience (Working Paper #26). Retrieved July 25, 2008, from http://www.marial.emory.edu/research/
Forthun, L.F. (2008a). Family nutrition: Parenting and family life. Gainesville, FL: Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. Publication number: FCS8869.
Marino, M., & Butkus, Sue (n.d.). Background: Research on family meals. [22 March 2013].
The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) (2011, Sept.). The importance of family dinners VII. Retrieved December 22, 2011
USDA Food Away From Home, October 29, 2014