10 Secrets of Great Moms: Part 8

Recently I got a newsletter from WebMD with some parenting articles that they thought I might be interested in. The first was an item from Redbook called “10 Secrets of Great Moms” (published April 11, 2008). The author basically got advice from 10 moms on a variety of topics from bringing baby home to sleeping to feelings to homework. I thought it might be fun to share my advice on the same topics.

Prioritize Family Dinner
When I was a kid there was no choice about it. Dinner was everyone sitting down at the kitchen table and eating together. It was at the same time every day, except Sundays when we occasionally ate a bit earlier. My mother and/or grandmother would do the cooking and we very rarely had a meal that wasn’t freshly cooked. This was the same with all my friends and their families.

The mom from the article said they went back to having family meals to help improve her son’s behavior. She eliminates TV, phone calls, and guests and requires everyone to sit down at the table together. She said it has definitely helped.

Studies have shown that having the whole family sits down together has far reaching affects. Communication is improved, academics tend to improve, the family as a whole eats healthier, develop healthier eating habits and it helps improve their development.

This is something that has been important to our family in the past but we have gotten away from it. I generally cook a meal and we do eat together, just not at the kitchen table and we’re usually doing something else – either watching TV or are at our computers. We have a great bond, open communication, she already does exceptional in school. However, we do lack the healthy eating habits and don’t have the healthiest of diets.

So I’ve decided to change that. We’ve gotten the kitchen table back out, bought new cushions for the chairs in the kitchen and pulled out the old tablecloths. Now we just need to break away from the TV and computer and sit at the kitchen table. Maybe we’ll start that tonight.