Why Family Dinners Matter: How Every Concern Crosses Your Dinner Plate
b'Why Family Dinners Matter: How Every Concern Crosses Your Dinner Plate Laurie David, Producer, An Inconvenient Truth; Author, The Family Dinner Greg Dalton, Founder of Climate One We are at risk of losing a cherished and nourishing tradition, the family dinner, says author and activist Laurie David. Producer of An Inconvenient Truth and author of the just-released The Family Dinner, David says a host of pressures and dangers threaten the family dinner. The culprits are familiar: long commutes; TV, phones, and video games; more women in the workforce; school events and extra-curricular activities scheduled during dinnertime; and the microwave. Despite the challenges, David says family dinner must again become routine, for the good of our children and our environment. \\u201cFamily dinner can help tremendously with three of the biggest problems we face today: our national health crisis, our difficulty connecting with each other through the fog of technology, and our urgent need to take better care of our environment,\\u201d David says. Home-cooked meals are not only better for us, she says, but by gathering the family around one table, they create memories, and help kids develop self-esteem, resiliency, patience, listening skills, vocabulary, and empathy. \\u201cOur grandparents knew it, and most of our parents, too, that frequent family dinner can help protect kids from everything a parent worries about \\u2013 from drugs to alcohol to poor self-esteem, low school grades, and poor nutrition,\\u201d she says. David admits it\\u2019s not easy to goad kids into leaving their computers or TVs for a sit-down meal at home. But, during the conversation with Climate One founder Greg Dalton and audience Q&A, David offers some helpful tips. One: get kids involved in the cooking. Another: prepare what David calls \\u201cparticipation food\\u201d \\u2013 meals, such as soups, that kids can add to by tossing in ingredients at the dinner table. \\u201cWe should think of family dinner as the most important activity our kids and our family can do,\\u201d David says. \\u201cIt\\u2019s a nightly dress rehearsal for adulthood, a safe, dependable place to practice cooperation, patience, and manners, kindness and gratitude, and share stories.\\u201d This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on November 3, 2010\\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices'