Making a tradition of eating dinner together as a family can be one of the most effective parenting strategies we can use in guiding our children into, and through, adolescence.
Creating a family principle that having dinner together is important sets the foundation for communication with our kids when they reach the age where they start to pull away. Though they may be holed up in their rooms, or off with their friends for most of the day, they will be at the dinner table each evening. They will have been conditioned to go to the table each night for dinner. It is just the way our family does things: we eat dinner together. It’s not optional, it just is.
Eating together is an opportunity to reconnect and share the events in each others’ lives. It’s where we pass on our values, our history, our jokes, our manners, making healthy food choices, and where we ask for each others’ opinions and thoughts on the world we are living in. Dinner time is NOT the time for discussing consequences to poor decisions, or debating heated topics. Dinner time is for cohesion and relationship building.
Busy schedules make it hard for families to find time to eat together, but it truly may be the best weapon we have to combat the pressures that society will put on our teens. Make it a priority.