HomeTrend Forecast
Important Trends, Relevant news, Useful Tools and Interesting Facts
about the World of Housewares and Home Goods Marketing
From A.J. Riedel, Sr. Partner, Riedel Marketing Group

IMPORTANT TREND

The Family Dinner Is Back

The importance of the family dinner is getting a lot of media attention and as a result, a number of organizations B from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse to TV Land and Nick at Nite cable channels to daily newspapers in major cities -- are actively promoting the ritual of the family dinner and educating families about the importance of shared time together.

Studies show that teens who frequently have family dinners are far less likely to smoke, drink, or do drugs than their peers. Kids who gather with family at dinner also have better grades and nutritional habits.

As usual, HomeTrend Influentials (HIPsters) are at the cutting edge of the family dinner trend: Many of the HIPsters with children make it a priority to eat at home together as a family. Despite busy schedules, on average, HIPsters eat dinner at home as a family 5.4 times a week.

What's more, 21% of HIPster families are sitting down to eat dinner as a family more often than they did a year.

For most of the HIPsters who are sitting down to eat as a family more often than they did a year ago, the decision to eat dinner as a family is a conscious one. Some are finding that as their children get older and are in more and more activities, it is getting harder to find time for the whole family to be together. They are making the family dinner a priority. As one HIPster wrote, “We are planning our schedules so that it doesn’t interfere with dinner time and being more aware of our time together even if it is only for 20 minutes.” They believe that eating dinner as a family is important because it is “instills good family values”, it is a “bonding experience as a family”, with busy schedules, it is “the only time during the day to connect with the family.”