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" Rounding up the troops for dinner each day is a logistical challenge for every parent. But a family sit-down brings more than just a healthy meal to the table. &amp;quot;Eating dinner together sets the stage for positive family interactions, makes kids feel more secure about themselves, encourages good nutrition, and lowers the risk of eating disorders and obesity&amp;quot; asserts Miriam Weinstein, author of The Surprising Power of Family Meals. And kids who have frequent family dinners are less likely to try drugs, drink, or smoke, and they&amp;#039;re also more likely to get better grades, according to the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University. That&amp;#039;s great news, but all the research in the world won&amp;#039;t make family dinner happen. What will? Start with these mom-tested strategies to get your family back to the dinner table.  Make dinner a movable feast. When Dad has to stay late at the office, or they&amp;#039;re busy with an activity, the Kiner family of Phoenix doesn&amp;#039;t give up on their family dinner plans. &amp;quot;When Dad&amp;#039;s working late, sometimes we&amp;#039;ll meet him somewhere on the way home from work and have a special meal out&amp;quot; explains Anne Kiner, 40, mom to Elizabeth 10, and Mitchell, 7. &amp;quot;The kids love it because it&amp;#039;s a chance to try different food than what they normally have at home. Plus, we all get to eat together.&amp;quot;  Think outside the dinner hour.  Can&amp;#039;t pin everyone down for a weeknight dinner? Turn lunch into a family affair instead. &amp;quot;Our son Isaiah, 22 months, is often in bed before my husband, Jamie, gets home&amp;quot; says Ingrid Daniels, 34, of Newark, NJ. &amp;quot;Jamie is able to come home midday, so we have lunch as a family.&amp;quot; If lunch isn&amp;#039;t possible either, set aside weekend family meal times, as the Ross family of Alpharetta, GA, does: &amp;quot;My husband works long hours and travels frequently&amp;quot; says Karyn, 40. &amp;quot;So we have David, 11, Joey, 10, and Ben, 5, keep track of what happened during the week to share with him on Saturday at breakfast and Sunday at suppertime. Ditch the dinner table.  Consider having an indoor picnic to conjure up some cozy family togetherness. &amp;quot;Every once in a while we take out a tablecloth and eat right on the living room floor!&amp;quot; says mom Shana Lee, 34, of Hoboken, NJ. &amp;quot;This brings us all together and makes our girls \u2014 Alexandra, 5, and Elizabeth, 3 \u2014 laugh, especially when their brother, Jared, 1, crawls around and mooches food off everyone&amp;#039;s plate!&amp;quot;  Let one parent do dinner duty.  Have supper as a family even if one parent isn&amp;#039;t able to make it, recommends Weinstein. This way eating together is more likely to become a regular occurrence, she explains. &amp;quot;If my husband, Paul, can&amp;#039;t make it home for suppertime, we go ahead and eat without him \u2014 but we set a place for him anyway&amp;quot; says Julia McGill, a 42-year-old mom in Keswick, VA. McGill&amp;#039;s sons, Matthew, 10, and Adam, 8, look forward to their uninterrupted time with Mom, but they&amp;#039;re glad she makes Dad part of it, too. &amp;quot;My youngest son gets upset if &amp;#039;Daddy doesn&amp;#039;t have a plate,&amp;#039;&amp;quot; she says.  Introduce a before-bed snack.  It&amp;#039;s fine to push dinner later once in a while for older kids. But as Vanessa Monticelli, 31, of Union City, NJ, knows, younger kids just can&amp;#039;t last that long. Her solution? &amp;quot;On the nights my husband works late, I&amp;#039;ll usually feed our son, Enzo, 2, his dinner around 5:30 or 6 p.m.&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;Then when Dad gets home around 7, we all sit down together and Enzo eats fruit or dessert while we eat dinner and catch up on the day&amp;#039;s events.&amp;quot;  Count your blessings.  &amp;quot;We begin each meal with everyone saying three thankful things&amp;quot; says McGill. &amp;quot;It can be as simple as &amp;#039;I&amp;#039;m thankful we&amp;#039;re having Jell-O,&amp;#039; or more elaborate, like &amp;#039;I&amp;#039;m thankful that my math test is finally over!&amp;#039;&amp;quot; she explains. &amp;quot;It changes our focus from whatever negativity the day has brought, such as conflicts with peers or bosses, to the positive things that happen in our lives.&amp;quot;  Get the group talking.  &amp;quot;In our family, the dinner table conversation often gets split in two&amp;quot; says Cari Noble, 32, of Long Beach, CA. &amp;quot;The kids \u2014 Reid, 10, Max, 7, and Miles, 5 \u2014 talk to each other, and my husband and I have a separate conversation. But the activity-card set Dinner Games &amp;amp;amp; Activities ($16, uncommongoods.com) has gotten us all talking together.&amp;quot; Other great dinnertime games sure to get tongues wagging: TableTopics Family Conversation Edition ($25, tabletopics.com) or a simple &amp;quot;conversation jar&amp;quot; filled with slips of paper that are scribbled with fun, open-ended, imagination-provoking questions (such as &amp;quot;If you could have one magic power, what would it be and why?&amp;quot;) that each family member takes a turn to answer. Let the kids help out.  About once a week the Knoll family of Minneapolis has &amp;quot;Kids Cook Night.&amp;quot; Mom Michelle, 38, helps the boys \u2014 Alex, 6, Ben, 4, and Max, 11 months \u2014 decide what to make by throwing out suggestions and letting them look through recipe books. &amp;quot;I let the boys do as much as they can, but I handle any cutting, the stove, oven, or other potential hazards&amp;quot; says Michelle. &amp;quot;They take pride in their work and love to tell their dad how hard they worked preparing and cooking dinner for the family.&amp;quot;  Make the meal a special occasion.  &amp;quot;A fun \u2014 and educational \u2014 ritual we do once a week is to have &amp;#039;Polite Night,&amp;#039;&amp;quot; says Gretchen Rubin, 41, of New York City, mom to Eliza, 8, and Eleanor, 2. &amp;quot;Instead of eating casually in the kitchen, we set the dining room table with place mats, cloth napkins, and if I&amp;#039;m being ambitious, a candle. We all practice our best manners \u2014 no elbows, no using fingers, no reaching, and napkin in lap. The elegance of the presentation is somewhat offset by my younger daughter throwing food on the floor, but it&amp;#039;s a start!&amp;quot;  Have &amp;quot;just-because&amp;quot; celebrations.  &amp;quot;Sometimes we turn the dinner hour into little parties to celebrate random things, like the first day of summer or the dog&amp;#039;s birthday&amp;quot; reveals Kara Paul, 34, of Hackettstown, NJ. &amp;quot;The girls \u2014 Elena, 9, and Chloe, 4 \u2014 make decorations, and I set out a buffet of hors d&amp;#039;oeuvres for dinner (kid-friendly things, like shrimp cocktail, crudit\u00E9s and dip, cheese and crackers, and deviled eggs). We fix fancy drinks, turn on the music, and have a great time.&amp;quot;  Dreaming of an easy, healthy dinner?  Scheduling time to eat together is tough enough, but finding healthy meals you can whip up fast is an even bigger challenge. That&amp;#039;s why REDBOOK has partnered with Dream Dinners, a national retail chain that provides you with everything you need to assemble delicious, healthy dinners for your family -- entr\u00E9es and sides you can store in your freezer and serve in the weeks ahead.  Here&amp;#039;s how it works: Go to dreamdinners.com to select the entr\u00E9es you&amp;#039;d like to make. Then book a visit to your local Dream Dinners storefront (there are 206 in 35 states), where you&amp;#039;ll assemble the ingredients for meals that can be frozen and popped into the oven any day of the week. It costs around $220 for a 12-meal series \u2014 about $18 per meal for six people. During September, you&amp;#039;ll be able to make Madras Chicken Curry, an exclusive Dream Dinners recipe developed by REDBOOK.And the first 100 readers who purchase 12 six-serving dinners during the month of September and send in the receipts to REDBOOK will win this cute entertaining set, complete with a pitcher, six tumblers, and a tray. Log on to redbookmag.com/dreamdinners for more information. 1. NOODLE NOSH My kids love noodles, so I usually boil some ahead of time to keep in the fridge. I just melt cheese over them in the microwave or make a cold pasta salad.  \u2014Michelle Knoll, 38, Minneapolis  2. AT-HOME SALAD BAR We buy bagged salad, and I set out bowls of different toppings on a large wooden lazy Susan that I keep in the middle of the table. This way, we can spin it around and everyone can easily reach. Ditto with plain baked potatoes!  \u2014Julia McGill, 42, Keswick, VA 3. INSTANT ASIAN One thing I always have up my domestic sleeve is Hibachi House -- totally yummy frozen microwavable Asian dinners. I kid you not, I can have it on the table in less time than it takes to find the phone number and place an order at my local teriyaki take-out place.  \u2014Marisa Jeackle, 41, Seattle 4. QUICKIE PIZZAS Our favorite 10-minute meal is Boboli pizza crust, bagels, or English muffins topped with tomato sauce and shredded mozzarella cheese and then popped in the toaster oven for a few minutes.  \u2014Shana Lee, 34, Hoboken, NJ 5. SIMPLY SANDWICHES Our standby dinner is peanut butter sandwiches with carrots and apple slices on the side. As unimaginative as that is, we always have the ingredients, and no one ever seems to tire of that combo.  \u2014Gretchen Rubin, 41, New York City 6. EGGS ANY WAY Nothing cooks faster than eggs \u2014 and they go with just about anything you happen to have in the fridge. I make fried-egg sandwiches with cheese, and ham if I have it; scrambled egg burritos with cheese and salsa; or omelets filled with whatever I have \u2014 cheese, mushrooms, olives.  \u2014Kara Paul, 34, Hackettstown, NJ "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.redbookmag.com/life/mom-kids/advice/a2006/its-dinnertime/>