Thursday, August 29, 2013

Have you taken the Family Dinner Challenge?



I have been promoting family dinner in this space for several years. I've thought about the hows and the whys, the benefits and the excuses, and the ups, downs, sideways and backwards of family dinner. I've wondered about the best ways to encourage people to give regular family dinners a try: I've quoted statistics and presented independent research. I've linked to recipes and other resources so that people would feel like there was support and help at their fingertips.

After all these posts, I can honestly say that I think it comes down to commitment. Simply making a commitment to family dinner, whether it is 3 times a week or every single night. Family dinner is really about setting goals for your family life and following through. Once you can do that, the proof is in the pudding. I find that families who start with the family dinner routine very quickly feel that it is worth the effort. Most families that "do family dinner" just wouldn't have it another way--it's that good.

That's why I love Aviva Goldfarb of The Scramble's new Family Dinner Challenge. In September she is encouraging families to sign up and make the commitment to family dinner 3 times a week for 4 weeks. She is hoping to get 10,000 families strong to join in committing to family dinner. It is easy, fast, free and with no commitment, other than the promise you make to yourself!

If you already have family dinner 3x a week or more, sign up and join the family dinner community. If you want help and resources to make the commitment for the first time, all the more reason to sign up! There are even some amazing prizes that you could win, but the real winner will be you and your family.

In addition to The Scramble, there is an amazing online community that has tips and recipes to help make family dinner a reality. Many of them have signed up as partners to the Family Dinner Challenge: The Family Dinner Book, Bri of Red, Round and Green, Time at the Table, Kia of Today I Ate a Rainbow, Gina of Feeding Our Families, Bettina of The Lunch Tray, Sally of Real Mom Nutrition, and the Kids Cook Monday. Some other favorite resources of mine are listed here.

Give family dinner a try; take the Family Dinner Challenge and join thousands of families making the commitment to family dinner this September!



You can also show your support for Family Dinner in a ThunderClap online event. Sign up with Twitter or Facebook, or Tumblr and you'll send out a message of support at the same time as thousands of others. It's a great way to call attention to the important of family dinner and the legions of families that are in support of family dinner and each other.