![]() ![]() ![]() If you’re struggling to get everyone to the dinner table at the same time each night, you could try for another meal in the day, or one meal a week where everyone is expected to sit down together, or even some special quiet time just before bed, depending upon the age of your children and your family commitments. While dinnertime works best for us it’s not right for everyone. While this can be partly attributed to personality but I do believe including regular time to sit down and talk together in your family’s routine can also make a big difference. In talking with friends, I know that not all children are open and forthcoming when it comes to sharing information, especially when asked about their day at school. Both of which are important at any age but particularly as children grow beyond the early childhood years.Įngaging your kids in conversation around the dinner table is invaluable. Michael goes on to say that while mental health professionals cannot be sure why this is so, that the most obvious reasoning relates to family members taking regular time to eat and talk together which allows parents to keep tabs on how their children are doing and children to grow up with the knowledge that they can talk to their family members about problems and concerns. “The biggest single preventative factor for anxiety and depressive illnesses in young people is being in a family that has 5-6 shared meals together with the television and other communication devices off.” You can read more here. What I had not previously thought about was the mental health benefits and I was interested to read the thoughts of parenting educator, Michael Grose, regarding this I have long been an advocate of regularly eating meals together as a family as a means of encouraging the positive eating habits of young children, and as the most effective way for them to learn socially acceptable behaviour and manners. ![]()
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