Successful teens

"A Columbia University study looked at successful teenagers (defined as those who get As and Bs in school and have never tried cigarettes or drugs by age 17). The common thread, regardles of such factors as socio-economic status, was family dinners three to five times a week."
- from "Taking a Bite out of Mealtime," by Julie Cohen, in the fall 2008 issue of TogetherFamily magazine.

That is not to say that eating family meals will help your kids to get As and Bs in school! But families that eat together probably do a lot of other things together... It's a valuable time of connecting to each other, reviewing the day (if you can get your kids to stop talking about their stuffied! - ed.), talking about plans, projects, and ideas, and just generally being there for each other.

We had family dinners when I was a kid and now my kids have family meals too. (Plus we often have company for Sunday dinners after church - another legacy from my childhood that I am passing on to my kids.) I wouldn't want to eat any other way!