You just got done working on your real estate business’s new marketing strategy using REI Blackbook, when you noticed it’s past dinnertime. It can be challenging to navigate owning a business and being a parent. However, having family dinners together is something that can have a big, positive impact on your children. If you’re not sold on that, we’re explaining 5 powerful benefits family dinners have on children.
Let’s get into it!
Quality Bonding Time
Quality time is incredibly beneficial to your children’s overall mental well-being. Research shows that children who spend more quality time with family are “less likely to participate in risky behaviors such as drug and alcohol usage.” An easy way to make sure that your children are getting enough quality time with you is by making family dinners a regular occurrence. The time spent around the dinner table is sure to make your children feel more loved and appreciated.
Learn More About Your Children
The dinner table is the perfect place to keep up to date on what’s going on in your children’s lives. As children get older, it becomes more challenging to encourage them to open up with you due to busy schedules and rebellious teenage attitudes. Making family dinners a priority every night ensures that both you and your children have a dedicated time and place to communicate and stay connected with one another.
Teaches Healthy Habits
Not only do family dinners help you to stay connected with your children, but it’s also an effective way to teach them healthy habits. Instead of rushing to eat, family dinners encourage your children to approach eating a meal as a time to slow down and appreciate their time while enjoying healthy food. In turn, this can help to prevent mindless eating later on in life – which is a big contributing factor to weight gain and subsequent health issues from that.
Minimizes Screen Time
When it comes to regular family dinners, it’s best that you keep it a screen-free zone. Otherwise, you miss out on the majority of wonderful benefits that it provides for both you and your children. Watching TV or using your phone at the dinner table could also lead to unhealthy habits and behaviors later on in life. Experts say that there’s a strong correlation between multi-tasking, like when you’re watching TV or on your phone, and weight gain. This could be because you’re not paying attention to how much you eat which could easily result in you eating more than you need or the amount you intended to.
Establishes a Routine
Regular family dinners are an effective and easy way to teach your children the importance of having a routine. Not only does it teach children the benefit of consistency and staying on a schedule, but it also allows them to have some type of structure to their day. It’s important that children grow accustomed to certain routines growing up, as it will help them to establish their own healthy routines as they get older.