The More Family Meals Together, The Merrier

How often do you sit down and share a meal with your family? Everyday? Once a week?  Or, maybe not as often…  We’ve all been there – everyone has a different routine, making it hard to sit down and enjoy a home-cooked meal together.  However, family mealtimesshouldn’t be neglected!

Aside from spending some quality time together, there are various benefits that come from something as simple as eating one meal, whether its breakfast, lunch or dinner, with your family. Luckily, there is an entire month dedicated to celebrating families eating together.

National Family Meal Monthdoesn’t kick off till September, but now is still a great time to learn more in preparation for next month!

Why More Family Meals?

1. Eating one meal together per day gives your family the chance to take a break from one’s hectic day-to-day plans, relax, and strengthen family bonding through communication. This is also linked to building healthy relationships and developing better social behaviors.

2. Sharing a home cooked meal often leads to eating healthier and more nutritious food. It can improve health outcomes since you’ll be more likely to eat fresh and whole foods versus processed and fast foods outside the home.

3. Promotes a healthy overall wellbeing for every person! It can aid in increasing self-esteem, help improve grades, succeed in school and decrease the likelihood of mental health disorders, such as depression.

Time to Involve the Whole Family

Now that you know about the benefits of family meals, it’s time to get everyone involved during the preparation and cooking!

Did you know that most households decide what to eat less than an hour before mealtime?

This means that you can easily get everyone involved in meal planning so that they can look forward to a delicious meal. Let your family choose the sides such as their favorite veggies, legumes and/or grains. You can even let them help you prep before cooking. Now, mealtime has become a family activity from start to finish!

Remember, you don’t have to wait till September to start dedicating more time for family meals.  It might be difficult to gather everyone together with such a busy schedule, but its never impossible!  The more time you share together, the better!

Your turn for action:  Check out the parent resources for ending mealtime battles with your kids HERE! And, scroll to the end of the page to grab your copy of my eBook 3 Steps to Raising a Mindful Eater.

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