Are Family Dinners Crucial?

A close look at the research.

Greetings from Salt Lake City, where I’m attending the biennial conference for the Society for Research in Child Development. (Hopefully I won’t get Covid from this one!) I’m here to soak up all the latest research on parenting and child development for YOU, and I’ll be sharing my discoveries here over the coming weeks and months. Thanks to all who support my work with paid subscriptions, as you have made it possible for me to be here. I’m immensely grateful.

Okay, onto today’s topic. I’ve spent many hours over the years worrying about family dinners. I’ve seen the research suggesting that kids who dine with their parents do better at school and report higher psychological well-being, and that they are less likely to use alcohol and drugs — and I’ve heard many a parenting expert argue that eating dinner together is crucial for family cohesion. But my husband has a two-hour office commute each way and can barely get home before 7pm, and I’m a stickler for early kid bedtimes, so sorting out the logistics has always been an uphill battle.

This week, I dug into the research, and I was surprised — and reassured — by what I found. Yes, family dinners can be good for kids. But what really matters, it seems, isn’t the act of eating together.