Cheap Eats: Dine On A Dime!
Sep 23, 2009 5:33 pm US/Eastern
Family Dinners Lead To Less Teen Drug, Alcohol Use
Monday, Sept. 28th Is National Family Day
Children Who Have Meals With Parents Are Less Likely To Smoke, Drink Or Use Drugs
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
Eating dinner with your family seems like a simple thing to do, but it's not so easy with busy work schedules, after school activities and just the overall hectic nature of our lives. There are studies that show making the effort to eat together could have a major impact on your child's future. That's why there's a national initiative called
Family Day - A Day to Eat Dinner with Your Children, designed to remind parents that what your kids really want at the dinner table is YOU.
Monica and Juan Carlos Trujillo of Doral have made a promise to start eating more dinners with their three girls. But they knew it wouldn't be easy.
"Because of conflicting work schedules, business travel and extracurricular activities with the kids it's been quite a challenge," said Monica.
Claudia Bailly is with the
South Florida Coalition Alliance, one of many groups across the country supporting the national Family Day 2009 in order to get more families to eat together.
She said the idea is the result of a study conducted by Columbia University.
"The study found that families who committed to enjoying mealtimes together at least 3 to 4 times per week had a very high incidence of children who made very healthy choices when it related to substance abuse," said Bailly.
Any parent can tell you one of the toughest things to do is to get their kids to open up and talk about their day.
There are all kinds of affordable products that can help you get the conversation started including the "Today I" game created by local mom Joanna Lopez.
"Every card has a different emotion, maybe it's 'Today I laughed'. The whole idea behind it is to get family's to reconnect at the end of the day," Lopez said.
"Today I wanted to do art," said Savannah Trujillo who got the conversation started at the dinner table.
Now that they can see the benefits, the Trujillo family is making a point to make a date for dinner several times a week.
"I think everything you put on a schedule if you commit you can do it," said Juan Carlos.
"We're definitely all for it for anything that will help us bond and anything that will keep that communication going," said Monica.
To learn about how to open the lines of the communication with your kids visit the
South Florida Coalition Alliance web site.
To purchase the "Today I" game visit
www.TodayIstore.com.
Family Day 2009, will be celebrated nationwide on
Monday, September 28th. All across South Florida numerous community organizations, hospitals, clubs, day care centers, religious organizations, schools and others are hosting Family Day events.
Click Here for a list of South Florida Events designed to remind families that conversations fostered at the dinner table help keep children drug-free.
To help get you started, CBS4'S Neighbors 4 Neighbors has teamed up with Chick-fil-A in offering a buy one, get one free meal coupon good on Monday, September 28th.
Click Here for the coupon and bring it in to any participating Miami-Dade or Broward County Chick-fil-A restaurant.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
Cheap Eats: Irish Fare & Italian Dishes
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
Reporting
