Alice Smith's blog: "Smart Shopping Center"

Eating dinner together with the family is a privilege not many have in today’s fast paced world. While the tradition of eating together was common in olden days, this tradition is losing its place in the family circle today. Parents with their busy work schedules, kids with study pressures and teenagers with their own problems to handle, hardly get the time to come together and share a meal.

While it may seem a little difficult to achieve, taking time out to eat together as a family unit is exactly what you need and should work on. Research shows that families who eat and spend quality time over the dinner table are found to be more happy, balanced and rooted to their family values. These individuals were found to be healthier and eat nutritious food as compared to the ones eating alone.

Dinnertime conversations are a huge booster to communicate with your kids and spouse. Ask them about their day, celebrate small victories and console anyone who is feeling down. This would help increase the family spirit among the members and they would feel more comfortable sharing their thoughts and daily activities with their family. Children can be introduced to new foods and taught about the basic table manners and social skills through this exercise. Also, children coming from families that eat meals together are more prone to absorbing the family morals and principles in contrast to those families who eat separately.

Eating together with your family would also ensure that your family members eat nutritious and healthy nourishing food. This way, you would be able to instil good food habits in your kids and teach them the importance of having a full hearty meal as opposed to the junk fries, pizza and other such eat-on-the-go foods.

Apart from just eating together, parents can also involve kids to help in dinner preparations. This could be anything from planning the menu together to grocery shopping to setting the table. Working together as a team not only helps to prepare food faster, it also relieves the work pressure from just one person by division of labour, making everyone more responsible and engaged in the whole process.

So get your family together on that dinner table today and experience the family connection. If you have a smaller table, spare no time in upgrading it to a bigger one as soon as possible. Look online, visit any furniture store in Perth; order the catchy one on display or customise one according to your needs! Share love and make long-lasting memories with your cherished clan during dinnertime.