Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Briefly . . . Family Night, Every Night

Editorial

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CLEAN, Inc., the Winchester-based nonprofit group dedicated to fighting drug abuse, wants to promote togetherness at mealtime as a way of combating this particular societal scourge. It sounds so simple, so obvious — but CLEAN may be on to something.

It’s been so long, or seemingly so, since eating together was the norm that even middle-aged folks forget that the 6 p.m. dinner table promoted not only good nutrition but heightened communication and conflict resolution. Family members learned a lot about each other over Mom’s home cooking — how Dad’s day at the office or factory went, how the kids fared at school, who scored a touchdown in football practice, who got in trouble on the playground etc. Tears may have been shed, but many a crisis was averted through knowledge and intervention.

To its credit, CLEAN has sought to recapture the spirit of that wholesome tradition through its promotion of Family Day Monday. Its rationale, in our mind, bears repeating: The group believes that families that do their best to eat as one have children who perform better in school and tend not to get mired in substance-abuse pathologies.

While we wholeheartedly concur, we’ll go CLEAN one better. Why not make every day, to the extent that it’s possible, family day. Having common meals, sprinkled liberally with inter-generational dialogue, is a great way to stay connected with our children.