The Surprising Power of Family Dinner

Many families have a few things they do over and over – movie nights, pancake Sundays, the first-day-of-school photo on the front steps. 

Psychologists call these family rituals: the repeated moments that quietly say this is who we are. Families that keep them tend to be more connected, and their kids tend to be better adjusted. Any family can start one, and it doesn't have to be elaborate. What makes a ritual is that it happens, and keeps happening.

Which is why dinner may be the most powerful ritual a family has. It doesn't come once a week or once a year – it comes every day. It's the one time everyone stops and gathers without anyone having to ask, and it's where kids feel they have a place they belong. Teenagers, who may never ask for time with their parents, quietly count on it. Indeed, kids who eat with their families just three or more nights a week have higher self-esteem, are less likely to be depressed or to use risky substances, and are more likely to eat well and be healthy.

None of this requires a long dinner or a perfect one. All it takes is that everyone knows there's a part of the day when the family sits down together. Nourished by the food, and by each other.

(And to make sitting down together possible when life is already so full – that's what Easyfeast is for.)

Sources

Fiese, B. H., Tomcho, T. J., Douglas, M., Josephs, K., Poltrock, S., & Baker, T. (2002). A review of 50 years of research on naturally occurring family routines and rituals: Cause for celebration?Journal of Family Psychology, 16(4), 381–390.

Hammons, A. J., & Fiese, B. H. (2011). Is frequency of shared family meals related to the nutritional health of children and adolescents?Pediatrics, 127(6), e1565–e1574.

Muth, N. D. (2024). Benefits of family meals: Eat together, thrive together. American Academy of Pediatrics.

Weinstein, M. (2005). The surprising power of family meals: How eating together makes us smarter, stronger, healthier, and happier. Steerforth Press.