These days the average American household prepares and eats dinner at home fewer than three nights a week. It’s tough to squeeze in trips to the grocery store between work, school, ballet lessons, soccer practice, and karate. However, despite the busy schedules of today’s families, making time for dinner does not have to be a burden, it just requires planning. Involve your children in planning a menu for the next three or four weeks. If grade school cafeterias can figure it out, so can you. Let your kids help you make the menu and create a grocery list so that shopping can be more efficient and less of a hassle.

Aside from the benefit of eating healthy, a meal eaten together at home can be time spent enjoying your family. Think of the meal preparation time and the sit-down eating time as a down payment on your relationship with your children and on their emotional health. Combine lessons in food preparation, food safety, and manners with quality time. Children like tasks in which they can fully participate and tasks they can see through to completion. After they’ve washed their hands, get your children involved in the mealtime process by letting them measure and mix ingredients; younger children can set and clear the table. Perhaps most importantly, praise your kids for their contribution to the meal.