Family Day

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While speaking with my Beautiful wife the other day she happened to mention to me that Monday, September 26th , was Family Day. Having never heard of it I asked her what it was, and she gave me a brief rundown as she knew it. Basically, it is a call to families to sit at the dinner table and share a meal together.

I'm actually being blasé blah about what it really is, partly because we do this every day, and partly because I think it's sad that families have to be reminded to spend time together. The fact of the matter is the CASA Family Day is about so much more than the simple explanation I gave, and I applaud them for it. Family Day - A Day to Eat Dinner with Your ChildrenTM is an initiative that was started 10 years ago informing parents that something as simple as eating dinner with your kids can help keep them drug and alcohol free.

CASA, or The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, maintains a website that is loaded with information and tools to make your Family Day dinner a success. There are printable items like placemats and menus, as well as recipes and activity mats. More importantly it is loaded with information about the importance of something as seemingly minor as sharing a meal with your family. For instance, and I was not previously aware of this, the more often a child eats dinner with his/her family, the less likely they are to smoke or abuse drugs or alcohol.

I love the fact that there is a fine institution like CASA out there spreading the word about the importance of eating together as a family. I have dedicated my blog to family dinner time, partly in the hopes that I can entice some of you into eating as a family, and partly because, well my family is so off the wall I have to tell about it.

I am not educated in the field of substance abuse, I am not educated in the field of child psychology, but as a person that grew up in the field I know this: Nothing bad has ever come from eating dinner with the family.
Personal observation, you don't need placemats and activity sheets. Try this: "So, how was school today?" And that's just for starters.

My twitter profile, as well as the profile on my blog says now, and has always said:
Married Father of 4 that believes that dinner should be spent at the table with the family, not in front of the TV.
http://casafamilyday.org/familyday/

Click on the link above, and set the table.



Comments

  1. The Angry ScotSeptember 26, 2011 at 2:45 AM

    Is it really? i'll need to remember that. It actually quite funny since i was just saying the other day to my fiancée that i think we should try and make a Sunday tradition in this house and make sure that we all sit around the dinner table with a nice meal and chat about our week.
    Since basically when everyone gets home during the week everyone including the children are to tired to really care whats been going on.

    Great post!

    ReplyDelete
  2. DaddyHBSeptember 26, 2011 at 5:25 AM

    Thanks Ben. When the kids heard about Family Day they couldn't believe that people DON'T eat together.

    ReplyDelete

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