In 2014, 63 percent of fathers who lived at home with a child ages 0 to 18 reported eating dinner with their child every day; an additional 27 percent reported doing the same at least several times a week. Only 8 percent of these fathers reported sharing dinner about once a week, less than once a week, or never.
Positive involvement from fathers is linked to many benefits for children, including better self-esteem, lower levels of depression, and greater academic success. This involvement can include a range of behaviors. Eating meals together (most often dinner) provides a time and place for fathers (and indeed, all parents) to practice these positive parenting behaviors—and eating together is itself linked to a range of positive outcomes for children. To maximize the benefits of eating together, and of paternal involvement, parents can make one simple meal to minimize prep time and maximize together time, recruit kids to help them cook, and make sure that meal times work for everyone’s schedules. When schedules and other constraints make it difficult for a family to have dinner together during the week, breakfasts together on the weekend are a great idea, too.
To read more of Elizabeth Karberg, Elizabeth Wildsmith, Elizabeth Cook, and Brooke Whitfield's article, visit; https://www.childtrends.org/fa...ing-dinner-every-day
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