Celebrate National Family Day

THIS GIVEAWAY HAS ENDED.

 

In honor of National Family Day, which occurs this year on September 26, Continuum Games will give two Grandparents.com Benefits Club members free sets of its Family Talk conversation-starter cards. Click here to enter. Entries will be accepted through October 6.

Looking for a good excuse to bring the family together for a meal? Here’s one that's hard to beat: According to the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASA), the more often kids eat dinner with their families, the less likely they are to smoke, drink, or use drugs.

Now, please pass the potatoes.

Since 2001, as part of its mission to encourage families to eat together more regularly, CASA has designated the fourth Monday of September (this year, September 26) as Family Day, a national intiative to remind parents, grandparents, and guardians that dinner makes a difference. Fostering engagement during family dinners, says CASA spokeswoman Lauren Duran, is a simple, effective way to prevent substance abuse.

If conflicting schedules make it difficult for the extended family to eat together, make use of the time you have, Duran says: "The key is parental engagement in children’s lives as a tool for raising healthy, drug-free kids."

Beth Daniels, an occupaitonal therapist and the creator of Continuum Games’ Family Talk series of conversational tools and games, suggests seizing even the smallest opportunities for conversation with kids or grandkids. “Life has gotten so crazy that we don’t eat together as much as in the past," she says. "Today’s traditional dinner table may be a fast-food drive-through."

For grandparents, whether you live in the same house or hundreds of miles away, making connections with kids is vital. Letting children know that you’re there and ready to listen will help you develop a trusting, engaged relationship.

For more ideas, read what award-winning producer and cookbook author Laurie David had to say about the importance of the family dinner tradition here at Grandparents.com; download CASA's Family Dinner Kit; or consider these eight pointers from Daniels:

1. Create an environment for kids to feel safe and open to talk. It may be the dinner table, breakfast table, or a grandparent’s house for a family meal. Any place the family regularly spends time together will work.
2. Limit the amount of time spent with electronics. In the past decade, face-to-face family time has decreased from 26 to 18 hours per week.
3. Be open to using technology — Facebook, email, texting, Skype. Though this tip may seem in complete opposition to the previous one, this is not referring to excessive use, but rather a method of communication among family members.
4. Ask diverse, open-ended questions. Parents and grandparents should not use family time to lecture, judge, or discourage. When kids are brought into the conversation, they’re much more likely to share.
5. Include extended family members and other generations. Everyone in the family has something to offer.
6. Tell stories. There’s so much to be gleaned from the stories of our past. Kids can hear about the mistakes we’ve made and learn from them.
7. Know that while kids may seem like they don’t want you in their business, they really do. Recognize when kids don’t want to talk, and plan conversations for another time.
8. Lastly, listen to conversations they have with each other. When they’re with friends or siblings and you’re around, turn the radio down. By learning what’s important to them, you’ll be able to guide future conversations.

Find more ways to connect with grandkids on Grandparents.com:

• Tell them your stories
• How to keep your grandkids off drugs
• Become a grandchild's pen pal