Family meals at our house can be wonderfully bonding, but more often than I’d like, they can also be very frustrating. I prepare, serve, and clean up a lot of our meals and frequently wonder if it matters at all to my family that I work so hard to try to feed them well. I put in a lot of time and effort and then have to deal with one or more people who thoughtlessly complain that they don’t like what was made. It makes me want to wring some darling little necks sometimes.
So why do I insist on feeding my family at home?
I vividly remember the classic conference talk given by Elder Oaks called “Good, Better, Best” in 2007. Here’s a quote from that talk:
The number of those who report that their “whole family usually eats dinner together” has declined 33 percent. This is most concerning because the time a family spends together “eating meals at home [is] the strongest predictor of children’s academic achievement and psychological adjustment.” Family mealtimes have also been shown to be a strong bulwark against children’s smoking, drinking, or using drugs. There is inspired wisdom in this advice to parents: what your children really want for dinner is you.
That quote keeps me going when I’d really rather not. And I’m always watching for ways to make things go more smoothly. In the next post, I’ll share three things that I’ve discovered really make a big difference in how smoothly our dinners go.
Until then,
Happy Home Evenings!
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