3 Really Important Reasons to Have Dinner With Your Family

Can you believe all the amazing things that having a few meals a week with your family can do? 

Have you tried to have a few more meals with yours? Have you been more present, more mindful, more engaged and had a better experience when you have had meals together? 

I hope so.  I always love it when I get to focus on a whole month of being together as a family. I hope you can embrace that small changes make a big big difference and that you don't have to change your whole life to change the world. 

Because we are now at the end of September and that means that we are at the end of Family Mealtime Month, I want to share with you 3 more reasons, or 3 reasons you may not have thought of that you should have a meal with the people that are your family. 

Improved Communication

Sitting down around a table provides an ordinary (but really extraordinary) opportunity to talk.  We get to talk, practice listening, learn manners, respect opinions, laugh, share and learn. 

This opportunity to catch-up with our families on a daily basis (or as often as we can) helps kids (little ones AND big ones) develop a sense of security and belonging. With a strong sense of belonging, children begin to acquire feelings of responsibility. It all comes from knowing that their actions have the power to affect the family.

Strengthened Family Values

Whatever topics may be talked about around the dinner table, the experience as a whole is an opportunity for you to teach and your whole family to talk about, ask questions, define and listen about the values of their family.

Before we even realize it, outside influences begin to tell our children what they should consider important - messages from  television advertisements, school, social media.

The table is your chance for your family to process and address these messages together in subtle or direct ways every day.

The values of the family (which is the home base our loved ones return to at the end of each day) carries the most importance as to how children will interpret their day’s experiences. Here, while having a meal together, they learn to build confidence in, to understand,  and act upon their values.

Enriches the Definition of Family

If your table is anything like mine, you always say "yes" when someone asks, "can ? stay for dinner"

Friends, neighbors, co-workers, guests everyone is welcome to sit with us at our table and enjoy a meal. We welcome you into our home and our hearts by welcoming others to our tables.


The simple act of enjoying a meal together has the universal effect of bringing people together.