Have Dinner With Your Kids

Parents, want to improve your kids’ grades, their health, and stop them from trying cigarettes, alcohol, and drugs? Then skip the sit down talks and have sit down dinners instead. Here are three reasons to gather ‘round the table:Family meals make kids healthier. In a University of Minnesota study, teens who ate the most meals with their families while growing up turned into college students who ate the most fruits and vegetables. The same study showed that family meals drastically reduced the risk of kids developing an eating disorder.Your kids will be smarter. In a study done at Harvard University, younger children who ate with their parents had better vocabularies. Columbia University researchers found that high-schoolers who had dinner with their families got 40 percent more As and Bs than those who didn’t.Kids who eat with their parents are less likely to try alcohol, cigarettes and drugs. Miriam Weinstein, the author of The Surprising Power of Family Meals, says that kids who don’t sit down to dinner with their family at least three times a week triple their risk of experimenting with alcohol, nicotine or drugs. If you’re thinking, “Good luck getting my kids to sit still for dinner,” check this out: In a national survey, eight out of 10 teens said they preferred eating with their parents.