Don't Forget: It's Family Meal Week

OK, it’s Family Meal Week and it's Thursday already. How many nights have you eaten dinner with your family this week? Not those dinners where everyone  scarfs down a sandwich in the car on the way to a baseball game or half of the family grabs a slice after the lacrosse game and the other half is eating at their desks or while watching TV.

No, we’re talking about the sit-at-the-table-and-have-a-conversation kind of meal. That’s what MMAC means with its Third Annual Family Meal Week, hoping to remind families how important sharing a meal together is for everyone and how it is one of the biggest deterrents to children engaging in risky behavior.

“Unfortunately, alcohol use among children and adolescents starts early in the state of New Jersey and in our own community. Reported usage increases rapidly between 8-12^th grade,” said Gail Barry, president of MMAC.

MMAC’s Family Meal Week is designed to encourage families in the township to sit down together regularly, to share conversations that will ultimately promote healthy habits and improve communication between parents and their kids and teens.

The 2010- 2011 results of the MMAC sponsored the American Drug and Alcohol Survey of township middle and high students show that the use of alcohol climbs from 10 percent in 8^th grade to 60 percent in grade 12.  Statistics for both drug and alcohol use among seniors in Millburn is now above the national average.

“In an effort to reverse these unsettling trends, MMAC is sponsoring the Third Annual Family Meal Week. Research shows that most teens do talk to their parents about their lives when at the dinner table without distractions like TV or telephones,” Barry said. “Coming together as a family over a meal makes kids feel good and is shown to produce higher life satisfaction for adults as well.”

MMAC reminds families that:

• Parents are the biggest influence on their children’s decisions about drugs and alcohol.
• Family meals can help keep children healthy, mentally and physically.
• No. 1 deterrent to alcohol abuse is an open, ongoing dialogue between parents and children.
• When kids eat frequently with their parents, they tend to do better in school, and are less likely to take risks.

“It’s a time to share and build trust and lay the groundwork for a healthy and responsible lifestyle,” Barry said.

Posters and brochures have been distributed in the elementary schools with easy mealtime conversation tips and web links to research. Students should have already brought those home, so look in their backpacks!

The brochure also reminds parents that meals don’t have to be elaborate – it doesn’t matter what the meal is, as long as families are together.

Other things that do matter include – turning off electronics, waiting until everyone is finished to let anyone be excused, eating around a table where you can make eye contact and making the mealtime positive. In other words, no nagging during dinner!

Here are a couple of conversation starters if you’re having trouble getting going:

• If you could change one thing in the world today, what would it be?
• How did you or someone you know show kindness today?
• Did anything really funny happen today? What was it?
• Name your high points and low points of the day.

 Enjoy.