“The dinner table,” wrote Judith Martin, aka Miss Manners, “is the center for the teaching and practicing not just of table manners, but of conversation, consideration, tolerance, family feeling, and just about all the other accomplishments of polite society except the minuet.”
Scout out “value of family dinners” online, and you’ll discover a bundle of research, commentary, and testimonies that back up Martin’s claim. According to experts and opinionmakers, family time at the supper table knits husband and wife, and children and adults, more closely together as they relate their triumphs and woes of the day, acquire snatches of family lore, and converse and laugh. In addition, everyone at the table generally eats more nutritiously than otherwise, and studies show that family meals can especially benefit children, leading to better grades in school and less likelihood of obesity.
