Home for Dinner: Mixing Food, Fun, and Conversation for a Happier Family and Healthier Kids

Has your family dinner table become a landing spot for junk mail, homework, and bills? Is scheduled dinnertime in your home 6:00 for mom, 7:00 or later for dad, and . . . are the kids even home tonight or do they have another activity to get to? Because with sports, activities, long hours, and commutes, family dinners seem to have gone the way of the dinosaur . . . And it’s time to bring them back--before it’s too late!Studies have tied shared family meals to increased resiliency and self-esteem in children, higher academic achievement, a healthier relationship to food, and even reduced risk of substance abuse and eating disorders. Written by a Harvard Medical School professor and mother, Home for Dinner makes a passionate and informed plea to put mealtime back at the center of family life and supplies compelling evidence and realistic tips for getting even the busiest of families back to the table.Parents looking to make family dinnertime more than just a fantasy will find inside this invaluable, life-saving resource highly relatable stories, new research, recipes, and friendly advice to help them:• Whip up quick, healthy, and tasty dinners• Get kids to lend a hand (without any grief!)• Adapt meals to the needs of everyone--from toddlers to teens• Inspire picky eaters to explore new foods• Keep dinnertime conversation stimulating• Reduce tension at the table• And moreBoth parents and kids need a family mealtime environment that allows them to unwind and reconnect from the pressures of school and work. More than just offering them nutrition and energy for another intense day of jet-setting about, the incalculable family therapy provided for all will far surpass the small sacrifices it took to gather around the table for a short time.

ANNE K. FISHEL, PH.D., is the director of the Family and Couples Therapy Program at Massachusetts General Hospital and an associate clinical professor of psychology at the Harvard Medical School. As cofounder of The Family Dinner Project, she has been interviewed by NPR, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, Good Housekeeping, Parents magazine, and other major media. She writes the Digital Family blog for Psychology Today.