Meals At The Family Table, The Lifelong Effects

All the time you hear about eating meals at the table as a family and how you can benefit as a family unit when you do so.  It's actually not load of guff.  Check this out.  A survey conducted by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, concludes  teens who eat at least five dinner meals with their families each week are:

• Less likely to smoke cigarettes or try marijuana.
• Less likely to try alcohol.
• Half as likely to get drunk monthly.
• More likely to get better grades in school.
• Less likely to have friends who drink alcohol and use marijuana.
• More likely to have parents who take responsibility for teen drug use.
• More likely to say they won't use drugs in the future.

What's the secret in simply eating a meal together? Researchers say that family dinners and the communication that occurs over the course of a meal are critical in building a relationship with your children and to understanding the world in which they live. In the House of Chip, we always eat at the table as a family.  Mainly because, along with my teenager, I also have 2 young children who sometimes have a hard time keeping their food on their plate.  I would rather it be cleaned up off of the table rather than the couch or floor in front of the TV.