We discuss the importance of Family Dinner, the Over-scheduled Family, and ways to get the food on the table with less stress. We have more giveaways this week and we are asking for your input as we discuss these topics. If you have had experiences that you want to share, get ready to call in.

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Importance of Family Dinner

Ken Patey is the father of 11 children and has traveled and lived in Canada, the United States, England, and the Middle East. Ken is the founder of GrowthClimate Therapy Services. Check out GrowthClimate to find out more about the amazing services that they offer to families and individuals. They have amazing online resources for family and personal growth.

A Harvard study, of 65 children over 8 years, found that family dinners were the activity that most fostered healthy child development.

Kids who eat family dinner are:

• Less likely than other kids to have sex at young ages
• Less likely to get into fights
• Less likely to be suspended from school
• At lower risk for thoughts of suicide
• 20% less likely to drink, smoke, or use illegal drugs (Children who do not eat dinner with their families are 61% more likely to use alcohol, tobacco, or illegal drugs)

Additionally, they

• Have more healthy eating habits overall, even when not at home
• Consume more vegetables, fruit and juice, less soda, eat less fatty foods and receive higher amounts of fiber, minerals, and vitamins essential to the body
• Score better on tests (results crossed racial lines and were a greater indicator than whether the child was in a one or two-parent family)
• Have better language skills (mealtime is an opportunity to hear more spoken language and process adult conversations)
• Have more parent-child conversation

Overscheduled Families

Stacey: Last year was probably the busiest year of my life. Growing up I had piano, dance, violin, voice, acting, church activities, soccer, volunteer and retail jobs, and participated in 4 AP high school courses at once, not to mention that I was the eldest of ten children requiring a lot of responsibility at home. BUT, all that considered, I was still more BUSY last year, as a full-time at home mother, than I was as a younger person. How can this be possible, you might wonder? Well, each of my oldest seven children was involved in at least one music class, some of them two. Each of my three girls had dance for a total of five classes/ week between them. My four oldest boys each had a sport, some of them more than one, and all of the children had church activities ranging from scouts every week, to big events that were more quarterly. Most of them also participated in 4-H after school classes on various days and of course, my two in Jr. High were in advanced classes that required more than average homework and lots of ferrying to the university library. When multiplied, that equals more than 20 extra-curricular activities per week! I should mention also, that I myself taught a volunteer chorus class at their elementary school which I did in the morning before school started! This was twice a week and made our early mornings very hectic, what with the baby only 9 months old at the time.

My husband, bless his heart, was always kind to help me out of a jam or to drive various carpools or what not when he could, but he works full time and is trying to finish a PhD on the side, while also fulfilling busy church assignments and random extra projects for his work. We flew through that school year, and when summer finally came, I said, “enough is enough.” I realized that my family needed more TIME to connect, to REFLECT, to ENJOY life. I felt stress from my little ones, and I was definitely not a CALM person most of the time. Today we are going to talk about OVERSCHEDULED family life. What is it? Why is it harmful? What can we do about it? And Why should we bother to change this rapidly popular lifestyle trend? Later on today we will have experts here to help us understand the importance of family dinner and we will be able to discuss dinnertime as it relates to this overscheduled lifestyle. I found more information than I could digest on this timely subject, but here are some facts:

• Daily Mail News reports: parents spend an average of 19 minutes a day caring for their children, then and additional 16 minutes a day watching kids as a “secondary activity” while paying bills, or doing other things not with the children.
• Kids today have HALF as much free time as they did 30 years ago: University of Michigan Institute for Social Research
• 33% decrease over three decades in families who say they have the evening meal together as a family
• Household conversations: dropped by 100% meaning that in 1997 the average American family spent no time per week when talking as a family was a primary activity in 1981
• Family vacation time decreased by 28%

These stats are startling. What do they mean: increased drug usage, increased ADD, decline in grades, increased sexual promiscuity and depressionBut kids needs sports for exercise, right? What do kids REALLY need? And what can we do as caring parents to help them and try to stay sane and in fact healthy and happy ourselves? We discuss this on the show.Additional info: www.puttingfamilyfirst.org/overscheduled_kids.php, the OVER SCHEDULED CHILD Avoiding Hyper-parenting by Alvin Rosenfield and Nicole Wise, Hyperparenting.com http://parenting247.orgGive yourself a break: you’re a great mom! Love your kids and love yourself!

Dream Dinners and Other Helps to Cooking

Tricia’s Opinion of Dream Dinners: PUT HERE

Nancy’s Opinion of Dream Dinners: The dinners are tasty and easy to make and I think there are times in your life when this is a great option. Before you have a baby, stocking up on Dream Dinners would give you less to stress about when you have a new child. When you have little babies without big opinions about meals, you and your parnter can enjoy the dinners and introduce your child to different tastes. If you have really picky kids (or spouses), then some of the flavors might not be a hit because these meals have a sophisticated taste. However, my son loved the BBQ chicken. My husband likes the meals. We don’t eat meat everyday so my 6 meals last me all month.

At a cost of approx. $3.50 per portion, this is a cheaper option than going out to eat and it takes the stress off the “What is for dinner” feeling you get at 4:00 most days. If you hate grocery shopping or find that you buy a lot of things you don’t use, then this could really save you money. You can see the calories and fat information and you can modify the recipe when you are making it to change things. There is also a vegetarian option for many of the dishes. That is good too. We are having a Sneak Peak Night in Orem on October 2 at 8:00 pm. Email nancy@babiesandmomsradio.com if you are interested in participating.

Shelly’s Other Ideas for Easy Dinner Options: I hate cooking dinner! But, alas, I must put something in all these mouths! I don’t have a huge eating-out budget, and the restaurant food isn’t nearly as healthy as homemade. I have so many other things I’d rather do instead, so I’ve developed some shortcuts. Here are just a few: If you use meat, go ahead and cook the ground beef with some onions and freeze it in portions you typically use in the freezer. I freeze one cup portions in sandwich bags and then put several sandwich bags together in a large freezer bag. It is easy to defrost these portions in the microwave and throw them in a recipe. You can skip the part that says “brown ground beef.” It’s great!

I also cook chicken this way ahead of time. I can throw some chicken in a casserole or soup or add some seasonings for a quick tortilla filling. It’s a great time saver because dealing with raw chicken is a messy thing. Get it over with once a month. You can also make two to three times as much of a recipe and freeze the rest for another dinner in a few weeks. It doesn’t usually take that much more time to double or triple a recipe, and it is a great feeling to not have to cook as often. When I make lasagna, I freeze two others that are ready to bake. I make lots of beans at once for tortilla fillers and have them ready to defrost and just add lettuce and cheese. Look at what you usually cook and see what portions could be done ahead and frozen. (Tip: keep a list on the freezer door of what dinners you have buried in there so you don’t forget, and on a busy day you’ll be able quickly see what your options are.)

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 Family Dinner, Overscheduling and Baby Signing 1, 2, 3 [55:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 26th, 2007 at 8:42 am and is filed under Stop Tantrums, Start Conversations, All in the Family, Podcasts/Shows. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.