This giveaway is over. The winner is Renee. Congrats!

As many of you know, I went to Ohio in April for the Stouffer’s Bloggers Roundtable. We were able to meet with a ton of experts, eat some awesome food, and a had a ton of fun. I have no pictures, because I am an idiot and left my camera in the room. And I know it’s July, and I’m just posting about this now. If you are a regular reader, you know that I literally came home to Will being taken by ambulance to the hospital. I was on a plane flying home when it happened, and I just got tied up in real life. That being said I have lots of things that I learned there that I have to pass onto you. Here’s a glimpse into my day there:

I know it looks like fun, and it was. I can honestly say I have never eaten quite this good before. However, let’s get to what I learned while I was there:

• Studies have shown that shared family dinners provide the most significant parent/child interactions, leading to improved language development and reading skills, socialization, identity, self-esteem, a sense of belonging, security, etc. Family dinners have even more impact than playing with or reading to children.
• Family dinners usually provide the most available, face to face, daily family time. The average time spent in daily, exclusive, parent/child conversation is 14.5 minutes
• Teens who have frequent family dinners are more likely to say their parents are very proud of them. “Compared to teens who have fewer than three family dinners per week, teens who have five or more are likelier to say their parents are very or fairly proud of them.” — The Importance of Family Dinners II, September 2005.
• Teens who have frequent family dinners are likelier to say their parents are the adults they would go to if they had a serious problem. Teens who have frequent family dinners are likelier to identify one or both parents as the adult they would turn to with a serious problem.” — The Importance of Family Dinners II, September 2005.
• Teens who have frequent family dinners are likelier to say they get mostly A’s and B’s in school. “Teens who have dinner with their families seven times a week are almost 40 percent likelier to say they receive mostly A’s and B’s in school compared to teens who have dinner with their families two or fewer times a week.” — The Importance of Family Dinners II, September 2005.
• The more often teens have dinner with their families, the less likely they are to smoke, drink or use drugs. “Teens who have five or more family dinners per week are one third less likely to have used alcohol and are half as likely to have used marijuana.” — National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse XIII: Teens and Parents, September 2008.

These are just a few of the things I learned there.  However, the statistics speak for themselves.  When I was a child, we always had family dinners, and it would be weird to me not to.  However, obviously, not everyone is that lucky.  I know we have family dinners here every night.  However, this is definitely something we need work on here, because we don’t talk to the kids enough during dinner(I think — though it’s hard when Madison is only 5 and will answer your questions with only a yes or no.).  I think the most important thing I walked away with was that if we start these conversations when our kids are young then when they are 16 they will feel like they can come to us with anything.

Now, starting a conversation can be tough, so I’d like to give one lucky reader The Family Dinner Box Of Questions.  This game can help start a conversation at your dinner table and help you connect to your kids.  For example, there are questions like “what qualities do you look for in a friend” and “which teacher or coach has had the most impact on you”.  Just starting a conversation can you lead you into so many more talks, and you’ll probably be amazed at what you learn about from you kids.

Here’s what you need to do:

Leave a comment on this post.  I’d like to know if you have family dinners at your house and how this game will help you and your family. Or tell me which statistic surprised you the most.

Each of these gives you one additional entry:

1. Twitter about this contest. Please leave me your username so I can verify. Or use something like this:

RT @blm03 is giving away The Family Dinner Box Of Questions http://mythoughtsideasandramblings.com/2009/07/19/stouffers-bloggers-roundtable/

2. Stumble this post and add this post to other social media sites like Digg, Kirtsy, Blogging Zoom, Reddit, Propeller, Etc. (1 entry for each social network).

Each of these gives you 5 additional entries:

1. Blog about this on your blog. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.

2. Add this to any forums you belong too. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.

3. Subscribe to this blog using either my email or RSS feed

4. Add my badge to your sidebar:

If this isn’t working, please let me know. For some reason, WordPress seems to be eating the code up when I post.

Each of these will give you 10 additional entries:

1. Join my Spark E Crew at Social Spark. Click here to find out how to sign up. If you are on my crew, please leave your social spark ID, so I can verify it.

This contest will end at August 2nd at noon CST! Good Luck!!

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