Family Mealtimes Matter

Time Together

Whether it is breakfast, lunch, or dinner, family meals provide an opportunity for family members to spend time enjoying good food and each other’s company. For many families, mealtime may be the only time when they have a chance to come together as a family and share quality time. Eating meals with each other provides a great opportunity to create and strengthen family bonds as everyone shares stories about their days and plans for the next few days or simply engages family members.

Positive Impacts

Research shows that making a regular commitment to family mealtimes is worth the effort, positively impacting a child’s development. Children from families who eat together regularly are more likely to have family support, positive peer influences, and positive adult role models. Family meals provide an environment that encourages communication between the child and adult. Building strong family relationships and ties among family members allows children to trust and depend on their caregivers for support.

Family mealtimes increase characteristics such as having a positive view of one’s future, being motivated and engaged in school, being committed to learning and having positive values and a positive identity. Families who had five to seven family meals per week were three times more likely to report having family support, positive family communication, and parental involvement in schools. Researchers have shown that family connectedness is associated with a lower chance of engaging in high-risk behaviors such as substance use and violence, and fewer psychological problems, including emotional distress in children.

Improved Nutritional Quality

Eating family meals is associated with improvement in the nutritional quality of the diet, as well as improvements in children’s overall well-being. Children who eat routine family meals also consume more fruits, vegetables, vitamins, and micronutrients, as well as fewer fried foods and soft drinks. In addition, the nutritional benefits keep paying dividends even after kids grow up. Young adults that ate regular family meals as teens were less likely to be obese and more likely to eat healthy foods when they were living on their own.

Atmosphere

The meal atmosphere is also important. Adults need to be warm and engaged, rather than controlling and restrictive, to encourage healthy eating in their children. If family members sit in silence, if parents yell at each other, or scold their kids, family mealtime won’t bestow positive benefits. This can be the one time of the day when a parent and child can share an experience – a well-cooked meal, a joke, or a story – and these small moments can gain momentum to create stronger connections away from the table.

Tips

The following is tips on ways to involve family members, including children, in making and eating more family meals together:

Make family meals a priority in your household. Focus on the importance of being together as a family more than the meal.

Start with small steps. Increase the number of family meals by one extra meal a week.

As a family, plan a menu for the week and make a grocery list. When children are involved in the planning process, they’ll be more likely to eat what is prepared.

Select recipes that give everyone an important task to complete. This will teach children about the importance of family togetherness and teamwork, which helps the job get done faster.

Let children gather food needed for making the meal from the cabinets, pantry, or the refrigerator. While they help you cook, you can talk to them about healthy foods.

Let children mix foods together or stir food in a pot with appropriate supervision. Be patient with spills and mistakes. Children like to eat the food they make. This is a good way to get them to try new healthy foods.

Ask your kids to help set the table. This is a great opportunity to teach them proper placement for a basic table setting.

Work as a family to clean up after a meal, making it fun! Giving kids responsibilities can give them a sense of being part of the household “team.”

Design conversation cards. These cards can be used to start conversations at the table, just in case there is quiet time. Involve the kids in making up the questions.

Turn off the TV and electronic devices! Instead, use the time to talk about each other’s day. This promotes social interaction, and it also helps everyone to appreciating the food they’re eating.

Family meals provide an opportunity for family members to come together and strengthen ties. Even if every family member is not available for every meal, families should strive to eat together as often as possible!

Written by Vicki Hayman, MS, University of Wyoming Extension Nutrition and Food Safety Educator

Sources: