With Thanksgiving and winter holidays now only weeks away…

With Thanksgiving and winter holidays now only weeks away…

  For many families, summertime means less structured time. Without the schedules and routines that often govern family life during the school year, these next few months can bring a sort of relief and a lot more “white space” on the calendar. The shift from school-year schedules to summertime can be both an advantage and […]

  Family dinner should be a fun, rewarding experience most of the time. After all, dinnertime is supposed to be the take-a-breath moment in our busy days, when we can sit down together and enjoy the company of the people we love most. But family dinner also involves family, and families — even the most […]

At this time of year, everyone is in a rush. Often September means the return of routines, but also the beginning of extra curricular activities, evening meetings and other dinner-disrupting obligations that can make gathering for a calm and upbeat family meal a real challenge. As our Executive Director Lynn Barendsen commented in a recent […]

Tension at the table is one of the most common reasons families choose not to eat together. Whether it’s complaints about the food, a leftover fight from the day before, or lingering stress from a long day at work or with the kids, there are times that the dinner table can feel like a minefield. […]

Happy Valentine’s Day Month! Perhaps the Beatles were correct when they crooned “All you need is Love.” But as everyone knows, love’s not always what you get. There are a whole slew of emotions we humans contend with: anger, joy, sadness, fear, disappointment, frustration. The list goes on. And for kids, recognizing and responding to […]