{"id":33820,"date":"2015-04-20T14:32:26","date_gmt":"2015-04-20T21:32:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dev.mainelyseo.com\/cdi-upgrade\/?p=33820"},"modified":"2019-07-23T16:53:51","modified_gmt":"2019-07-23T23:53:51","slug":"why-your-family-should-eat-together-2-critical-reasons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/childdevelopmentinfo.com\/development\/why-your-family-should-eat-together-2-critical-reasons\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Your Family Should Eat Together: 2 Critical Reasons"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/childdevelopmentinfo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Why-Your-Family-Should-Eat-Together-2-Critical-Reasons-Darker.webp 700w,https:\/\/childdevelopmentinfo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Why-Your-Family-Should-Eat-Together-2-Critical-Reasons-Darker-600x408.webp 600w,https:\/\/childdevelopmentinfo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Why-Your-Family-Should-Eat-Together-2-Critical-Reasons-Darker-100x68.webp 100w,https:\/\/childdevelopmentinfo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Why-Your-Family-Should-Eat-Together-2-Critical-Reasons-Darker-400x272.webp 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" type=\"image\/webp\"><img src=\"https:\/\/childdevelopmentinfo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Why-Your-Family-Should-Eat-Together-2-Critical-Reasons-Darker.jpg\" height=\"476\" width=\"700\" srcset=\"https:\/\/childdevelopmentinfo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Why-Your-Family-Should-Eat-Together-2-Critical-Reasons-Darker.jpg 700w, https:\/\/childdevelopmentinfo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Why-Your-Family-Should-Eat-Together-2-Critical-Reasons-Darker-600x408.jpg 600w, https:\/\/childdevelopmentinfo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Why-Your-Family-Should-Eat-Together-2-Critical-Reasons-Darker-100x68.jpg 100w, https:\/\/childdevelopmentinfo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Why-Your-Family-Should-Eat-Together-2-Critical-Reasons-Darker-400x272.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-33822 sp-no-webp\" alt=\"Why Your Family Should Eat Together 2 Critical Reasons Darker\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\"  > <\/picture><\/p>\n<p>Many families have gotten away from the tradition of sitting down together for breakfast in the morning, lunch at midday, and dinner every night. It&#8217;s easy to see why if you look at all of the events and errands that take place on any given day. Kids have <a href=\"https:\/\/childdevelopmentinfo.com\/development\/how-to-set-limits-on-after-school-activities\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">after-school activities<\/a>, dental appointments, and doctor visits. (Hopefully, you don&#8217;t need to add detention to that list!) Parents, on the other hand, are usually dropping the kids off somewhere either before or after work and running errands. It isn&#8217;t always an easy task to <a href=\"https:\/\/childdevelopmentinfo.com\/healthy-meals-for-kids-teens\/make-life-easier-meal-plans\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">arrange for a meal<\/a> when everyone is at home at the same time.<\/p>\n<p><picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/childdevelopmentinfo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/1.-Better-Nutrition-and-Health.webp 700w, https:\/\/childdevelopmentinfo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/1.-Better-Nutrition-and-Health-600x63.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" type=\"image\/webp\"><img src=\"https:\/\/childdevelopmentinfo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/1.-Better-Nutrition-and-Health.jpg\" height=\"53\" width=\"500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/childdevelopmentinfo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/1.-Better-Nutrition-and-Health.jpg 700w, https:\/\/childdevelopmentinfo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/1.-Better-Nutrition-and-Health-600x63.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-33823 sp-no-webp\" alt=\"1. Better Nutrition and Health\" decoding=\"async\"  > <\/picture><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>According to one recent study (published in 2011 in the <em>Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics<\/em>), children are less likely to develop bad eating habits, or worse yet, eating disorders, if they have the opportunity to sit down and enjoy a traditional family meal setting each and every day. In fact, the same study also suggests that children who eat with their families are more likely to develop good eating habits like choosing healthier foods over unhealthy ones.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, it&#8217;s important to realize the roles of parents in this scenario, particularly because most children learn by example. If parents fail to serve nutritional meals during family meal times, it will become more difficult for their children to develop good eating habits. On the other hand, parents who continually place an emphasis on healthy choices such as fresh vegetables and fruits, lean meats, and whole grains is giving their child an opportunity to learn how to eat healthy.<\/p>\n<p><picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/childdevelopmentinfo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Interpersonal-Bonding-500x53.webp \"  type=\"image\/webp\"><img src=\"https:\/\/childdevelopmentinfo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Interpersonal-Bonding-500x53.jpg\" height=\"50\" width=\"481\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-33828 size-full sp-no-webp\" alt=\"Interpersonal Bonding 500x53\" decoding=\"async\"  > <\/picture><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Thanks to technology, parents today might never see their kids if they didn&#8217;t need to drive them to school or a friend&#8217;s house. Everyone is texting instead of talking. While this might be an exaggeration, it holds true to a certain extent. Just look around you. How many people are on their phones right now?<\/p>\n<p>Despite the ease with which many people become more comfortable talking to their friends and family members via email and texting, one-on-one communication that is accomplished in person is extremely critical. Despite the fact that texting shortcuts like &#8220;lol&#8221; and &#8220;omg&#8221; might regularly appear in your child&#8217;s messages, does this actually tell you anything about your kid? Do you know for a fact that your child is happy? Would you be able to recognize if your child was hiding behind the screen because he didn&#8217;t want you to see how unhappy he is?<picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/childdevelopmentinfo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Bonding-Family-Meal.webp 400w,https:\/\/childdevelopmentinfo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Bonding-Family-Meal-100x68.webp 100w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" type=\"image\/webp\"><img src=\"https:\/\/childdevelopmentinfo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Bonding-Family-Meal.jpg\" height=\"270\" width=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/childdevelopmentinfo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Bonding-Family-Meal.jpg 400w, https:\/\/childdevelopmentinfo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Bonding-Family-Meal-100x68.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-33833 sp-no-webp\" alt=\"Bonding Family Meal\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  > <\/picture><\/p>\n<p>Family mealtimes are <a href=\"https:\/\/childdevelopmentinfo.com\/child-activities\/3-ways-to-plan-family-activities\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">good opportunities for bonding<\/a>. They provide a chance not only to share the day&#8217;s events but also to get to know each other a little better. Even without a food fight, you&#8217;re more likely to discover what makes your child laugh or cry over a family meal than you are through a short text message that you had to learn how to decipher before you even knew what it meant.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Many families have gotten away from the tradition of sitting down together for breakfast in the morning, lunch at midday, and dinner every night. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":33821,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,19,10,12,13],"tags":[2145,136,137,138,140,533,525,2147,223,229,230,2163,247,276],"class_list":["post-33820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-development","category-parenting","category-family-building","category-fun-family-activites","category-healthy-meals-for-kids-teens","tag-connectedness","tag-family","tag-family-activities","tag-family-fun","tag-family-meals","tag-featured","tag-gradeschooler","tag-health-living","tag-nutrition","tag-parent-child-communication","tag-parent-child-relationship","tag-parenting","tag-positive-parenting","tag-school-age-children"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Why Your Family Should Eat Together: 2 Critical Reasons - Child Development Institute<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Should your family make a concerted effort to eat meals together? 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Keenan","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/childdevelopmentinfo.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43b3dfc78bda5bb73141717b2d5369b37ed46e49ea2b378c8f37dd5f50835d78?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43b3dfc78bda5bb73141717b2d5369b37ed46e49ea2b378c8f37dd5f50835d78?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Susan M. Keenan"},"description":"A professional freelance writer, Susan M. Keenan holds a Master\u2019s Degree in Community Psychology (Temple University) and a Bachelor\u2019s Degree in Sociology (La Salle University). Prior to writing, she taught computer technology in private elementary schools. She is married and has four grown children, each of whom has graduated from college, and a granddaughter. 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Keenan","author_link":"https:\/\/childdevelopmentinfo.com\/authors\/susanmkeenan\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"&nbsp; Many families have gotten away from the tradition of sitting down together for breakfast in the morning, lunch at midday, and dinner every night. [&hellip;]","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/childdevelopmentinfo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/childdevelopmentinfo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/childdevelopmentinfo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/childdevelopmentinfo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/87"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/childdevelopmentinfo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33820"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/childdevelopmentinfo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41530,"href":"https:\/\/childdevelopmentinfo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33820\/revisions\/41530"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/childdevelopmentinfo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/childdevelopmentinfo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/childdevelopmentinfo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/childdevelopmentinfo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}