Stay Close to Your Child

Dr. Blake Bowden and his colleagues at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Center surveyed 527 teenagers to determine what lifestyle characteristics were related to mental health and adjustment.

The most important factor in child development is dinnertime.

In other words, they wanted to find out what factors best predict whether a teenager will do well in school, have a supportive circle of friends, and not be on drugs, not be depressed, and not be in trouble with the law.

Their astonishing finding? The most important factor is whether the adolescents and their parents ate dinner together five or more times a week.

Similarly, Dr. Catharine Snow, professor of education at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, followed 65 families for eight years. Her conclusion? The most important factor in child development is dinnertime. It’s far more important than playtime, school and story time.

In his best-selling book Bringing Up Boys, Dr. James Dobson cites these research studies and then comments: “With such strong evidence in support of family meals, it’s unfortunate that only one-third of U.S. families eat dinner together most nights. The hectic world in which we live has pressed in on all sides and caused us to eat on the run.”

Thankfully, it is possible to change this trend:

1. With determination and planning, schedule more family meals into each week.

2. Do what you can to ensure that family members sit down together around the table and have plenty of time to talk with each other.

3. Remember the most important thing isn’t what you eat — or even where you eat it. It’s eating together.

4. Establish traditions for what your family eats together at certain holidays, birthdays, and other special occasions.

5. Following the example of Jesus and the first Christians, be sure to pray together, thanking God for “every good and perfect gift” (James 1:17).
   

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On This Topic

• Introduction • Protecting the Emotional Health • If Your Child Is Struggling Emotionally • The Breakdown of the Family • Fathers and Their Child’s Faith • Fathers and their Child’s Behavior • How Moms Can Stay Close to Their Sons • The Importance of Dinnertime • Praying with Your Child • The Power of Modeling • Defining “Good Family Man” • The Power of Specific Instruction • The Bible’s Instructions for Moral Living • Teaching Respect for Girls and Women • What Does It Mean to Parent? • Teaching Your Child How to Work