A good friend of mine years ago decided that his family would have at least one meal a day that they would eat together. But with three teenages, it was found to be impossible for them all to be together for supper. So. . .he decided that they would all have breakfast together. And it worked. The entire family of five every day ate a sitdown, cooked breakfast. Then they could discuss the previous day's activities and the agenda for the coming day. They all had to get up a little earlier, but for the family, it was worth it.
Families throughout the United States and the Diocese of Sioux City are encouraged to participate in Family Day on Sept. 25 and sit down together for a meal.
"Families need time together because we are people and we are about relationships," said Vera Ludwig, coordinator of family programs for the Diocese of Sioux City. "If you don't have time talking together how can you have a relationship."
The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University created Family Day - A Day to Eat Dinner with Your Children in 2001. It is celebrated on the fourth Monday in September. CASA co-sponsors the day with media partners TV Land and Nick at Nite. Each station runs commercials promoting the day and asks families to eat together.
The CASA Family Day Web site, www.casafamilyday.org, states that the day is "a national effort to promote family dinners as an effective way to reduce substance abuse among children and teens."
Ludwig mentioned that according to CASA "teens who eat dinner with their family six to seven times per week are at almost half the risk of substance abuse as teens who eat dinner with their family twice a week or less." [...snip] Sioux City Catholic Globe
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