Why Family Dinner Is So Important

The Atlantic recently addressed the decline of family dinners in America. We're approaching Thanksgiving and Moms around the nation are lobbying for a big family dinner. They'll get it to be sure, but are they right?

Is all the stress of family dinner really worth the benefits? I mean, we're busy right? It turns out there's some research to support gathering together for a meal on a regular basis.

Here's what the experts have to say:

Sadly, Americans rarely eat together anymore. In fact, the average American eats one in every five meals in her car, one in four Americans eats at least one fast food meal every single day, and the majority of American families report eating a single meal together less than five days a week. It’s a pity that so many Americans are missing out on what could be meaningful time with their loved ones, but it’s even more than that. Not eating together also has quantifiably negative effects both physically and psychologically.

Children who do not eat dinner with their parents at least twice a week also were 40 percent more likely to be overweight compared to those who do, as outlined in a research presentation given at the European Congress on Obesity in Bulgaria this May.

On the contrary, children who do eat dinner with their parents five or more days a week have less trouble with drugs and alcohol, eat healthier, show better academic performance, and report being closer with their parents than children who eat dinner with their parents less often, according to a study conducted by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University.

Does that really have anything to do with not eating together?

here are two big reasons for these negative effects associated with not eating meals together: the first is simply that when we eat out—especially at the inexpensive fast food and take-out places that most children go to when not eating with their family—we tend not to eat very healthy things.

The problem is that the meals we eat from restaurants are higher in fats, salts, and overall calories.

The other reason is that eating alone can be alienating. The dinner table can act as a unifier, a place of community. Sharing a meal is an excuse to catch up and talk, one of the few times where people are happy to put aside their work and take time out of their day.

Are we alienating our children and inadvertently teaching them not to seek our presence by skipping meals with them at the table? It's a scary thought.

For the average American family, who now spends nearly as much money on fast food as they do on groceries, this simplicity is not so easily achieved. Perhaps the root of this problem is cultural misperception.
In America, it seems snobbish to take time to eat good food with one’s family. The Norman Rockwell portrait of the family around the dinner table now seems less middle-class and more haute bourgeois, as many families can’t afford to have one parent stay home from work, spending his or her day cleaning and cooking a roast and side of potatoes for the spouse and kids. Most parents don’t have time to cook, many don’t even know how, and the idea that one should spend extra money and time picking up produce at the supermarket rather than grabbing a bucket of Chinese take-out can seem unfeasible, unnecessary, and slightly pretentious. It’s understandable to want to save time and money.

Well call me haute bourgeois because I love eating dinner with my family every night. We did it even when I worked, although now I stay home. I enjoy cooking for my family, but even on nights when I'm not cooking we eat together at the table.  It's something I've always felt was important. Now I know there are concrete reasons to keep it up.

Need more reasons to reinstate the family dinner at your house? Learn more about why family dinner is important from The Atlantic.