Do you eat as a family every night? We don’t. That is why participating in the Barilla “Share The Table” event was so good for us, and I am sharing about it in this sponsored post to help support all of our families. Barilla created Share The Table to help inspire, empower and support all families to enjoy more meaningful meals together.Here are a few statistics to support why this initiative is so necessary in our society today:
1. Kids benefit from better grades (49% report mostly A’s) and healthier habits (such as eating nutritious foods, 33%) and describe themselves as respectful (75%), happy (70%), rule followers (66%), confident (58%), independent (56%) and hardworking (52%).
2. Adults have more feelings of happiness (65%), and are less likely to have feelings of stress (65%).
For mealtime inspiration visit SharetheTable.com, that is where I first saw this video:
My spouse works too late for my son to wait for dinner during the week. I feel like it is taboo to admit that, but that is the truth in our house. Fridays I will stretch out my son’s snacks so that we can eat together at the end of the week, but when your husband comes home at 7 p.m., you do have to be practical, my son cannot eat that late on a school night. Weekends we always eat every meal together, so we do make that work.
As parents, we have agreed that dinner time is the best time for us all to communicate and catch up with what has been going on during the day. I get that at school pick-up during the year, but many weekday nights my spouse misses out. Statistically, one out of four families feels disconnected from each other, like my spouse who sometimes reads the paper while he eats alone. I feel that time is of the essence to ensure that we have some family dinner habits in place before we have a teenager in the house who’s only way of communicating is grunting – that is what I have read will be in our future. I believe if I put some family traditions in place now, we may be able to have a teenager who will still want to talk to us, at least at dinner time!
And even with eating together on the weekends, we had never considered the possibility of actually cooking together! But, now we have done it once with Barilla’s Share The Table, so we have reference that we can prepare a meal together, actually like it (my hubby is a little picky!), and survive! Of course, it did help that Barilla prepped all the ingredients for us:
Barilla’s prep certainly made it easier, and that is what I will have to do at home in order to get my boys to continue to participate! I do think my son would love to help in the kitchen, so I would have a “sous chef” as they say in the trade, as an assistant!
We did have to follow instructions and we all 3 put together a delicious pasta salad. The interaction we needed to work together was also a way to bond my family so that was an excellent side benefit that I did not anticipate, but was thrilled, that it had occurred!
As I said, my spouse is a little picky: his mom’s cooking is excellent and tough for me to go up against, but it seems that having him work with us had the effect of increasing his enjoyment and we started eating before I even remembered to get a picture before the pasta salad was finished!
Trust me, it all happened so fast, by the time our dish was ready we could not wait to eat!
There was a discussion afterwards on how we could all work as a family and communicate over dinner, and I was able to contribute by saying one word answers were not an acceptable form of family communication. It doesn’t work for my middle school aged son when he is writing sentences for reports, so it doesn’t work as we try to talk to each other and bond as a family!
I am old school, and strict. Electronics are not allowed at the table, and we have had to set boundaries so that our son does not think he can finish dinner in five minutes to go off to do something else (like watch TV!). It is all about setting yourself up for success! Just sitting down to dinner does not guarantee successful conversation and family bonding. I would love to hear how you set your family up for success like we do, i.e., the way we do not allow one word answers to questions!
I also have to mention that I am aware that Guido Barilla, the head of Barilla, made some remarks that were hurtful to families like mine. I prefer people to say what they feel, like Mr. Barilla did, so that they have an opportunity to learn and effectively make improvements, which Barilla has done. There are many who keep their thoughts to themselves and never have an opportunity to meet a family like mine and see that we are all a part of the wonderful fabric of American family life! That is why I am able to support and share Barilla’s Share The Table information with you, regardless of the fact that I am receiving compensation. No amount of money would be sufficient for me to participate otherwise.
Lastly, here is your check list to help you have successful Share The Table experiences with your family:
1. Make and eat good food all the time, and on occasion, make it together!
2. Talk and listen more. No one word answers!
3. Eat together more often. Fridays I give my son an extra snack so he can eat a later dinner that will include both dads during the week.
4. Get everyone involved. That does not mean I cook and my spouse takes out the garbage!
5. Eliminate distractions. Yes, I am talking to you over there with the phone under the table, texting to a friend, trying to hide it from us!
Disclosure: Barilla asked me to take part in their Barilla Blog Tour and to share my family’s experience during mealtime. All opinions are always 100% honest and our own. Also, I love pasta, macaroni, and noodles!
And Barilla supports organizations that help empower families of all kinds to Share The Table, through programs that promote food security and help children develop healthy and fulfilling lifestyles. They work with:
Feeding America, the Girl Scouts, and Common Threads. It is easy to support a company that practices good citizenship this way.
Follow along! You might find a coupon, you will definitely find recipes!
Barilla Website
Share The Table Website
Barilla Facebook Page
Barilla Twitter Account
Barilla Instagram Account
Having meal times together really helps a family be closer. It gives you a connectness. Barilla is our number one choice of pasta.
As the brother of a gay man, I too was hurt by the comments made by Barilla in the past. I applaud you for your comments and how you handled it. I wouldn’t have been so restrained…
We try to eat together as a family as often as we can, but it is not every night. My husband works nights, so it is hard for us. We love Barilla pasta and is a favorite we use often.
I love this post. I think family dinners are so important, but I don’t think you need to feel bad about stating your husband gets home too late to eat weeknight dinners together – schedules are schedules! At least you put in the effort on the weekends. Doing it as much as you can is awesome.
We try to find at least one night to be together and eat together.