To most adolescents (and even some parents), there's nothing more out-of-date than dinner with the family. Instead of sitting down with boring parents and annoying younger siblings, they'd prefer to load their plates, scurry away and separate themselves in their own rooms to eat. With the fast growing pace of technology in today's world it is hard to get kids to sit down with the family when they could go to their own room and plop down with their IPad or laptop. Evidence shows that this destructive behavior must come to a stop.
According to TLC's "How Stuff Works", the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University researched the benefits of family dinners and found clear results. Specifically, researchers compared the responses of children who reported having family dinners fewer than 3 times a week to those who have family dinners 5 or more times a week. The study concluded that children who enjoy frequent dinners with their family are far less likely to develop substance abuse problems. If a child has family dinnertime on a regular basis, he or she is:
- half as likely to try cigarettes or marijuana
- one-third less likely to try alcohol
- less likely to have friends who drink alcohol or use marijuana
- more likely to say they will never use drugs
We would like to encourage families to get back to dining together. To motivate you to do so, we have decided to run a family dinner photo contest! The winner of this contest will receive a $25 Better Than A Bistro Gift Card. Please see the link below for more information.
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