 Children learn a lot from their parents. They tend to pick up their parents' exercise habits. They tend to copy their parents' food choices in the long run, but they also learn a lot from us about how eating should happen. Do we sit down together and eat from dishes? Do we eat on the run in the car or in front of a television? Do we answer our phones or check emails during dinner? There's a lot of evidence suggesting that children who sit down to eat with their families on a regular basis actually stay healthier. Our eating behaviors teach our children more than just which foods are healthier for their bodies. When we sit together to share a meal, our children can learn valuable communication skills like how to listen to other people and to share their ideas in an effective way. Throughout history, mealtimes have also been an important way for families to pass on traditions and stories from one generation to the next. For older children, the dinner table can be a safe place to talk about anything that's worrying them and to get advice from the people they trust most. Besides all of this, dinnertime can be so much fun. If you want some great tips on how to make mealtime special, you might want to have a look at Lori David's book called The Family Dinner, but in the meantime, here are some tips to get you started. Firstly, try and have everything you need at the table ready at the start of the meal so that no one has to get up for the water jug or the pepper mill. For the first few nights, try thinking up an activity like a silly game or a question to get the ball rolling. My three little boys love it when I ask them questions about cars, but obviously you need to choose questions that will interest your children. Then, have a story ready about your own day. Tell them something that happened to you and how you reacted and maybe ask them what they think you should have done. This sets them up to be able to share their own experiences if they ever want to at the table. Finally, if you have enough food to share, try inviting some friends to the meal. Having friends of any age at the table helps make dinner fun and can teach your children that meals are a good time to relax and enjoy good food and good company. It may not be realistic for some families to sit down to a meal every day, but in general, the more often we can sit down with our children to eat, the better it will be for their health. There's pretty good evidence that children who regularly eat with their families do better at school and have better health outcomes than those who don't. And of course, there are many ways for us to spend quality time with our children, but eating together can protect the whole family's health and add so much value to our lives.