One of our family members would declare it, “EPIC!”

We are hunkering down for a nice long post-season this year! Go Rays!

From 2003 to 2008 research by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University has consistently found that children who have frequent family dinners are less likely to use marijuana, tobacco and drink alcohol.

CASA research reveals that compared to children who have frequent family dinners (five or more per week), children who have infrequent family dinners (less than three per week) are two and a half times likelier to have used marijuana and tobacco, and one and a half times likelier to have drunk alcohol.

Monday, September 22nd will mark CASA’s eighth annual Family Day – A Day to Eat Dinner with Your ChildrenTM celebration. Family Day is a national movement to inform parents that the parental engagement fostered during frequent family dinners is an effective tool to help keep America’s children substance free and reminds parents that “Dinner Makes A Difference!”

“If you asked me based on CASA’s 16 years of intensive examination of substance abuse and addiction in our nation what’s the most effective thing we can do to curb this scourge and protect our children, I would say parental engagement. And there is no more effective example of this than frequent family dinners,” said Joseph A. Califano, Jr., CASA’s chairman and president and former U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare. “Years of surveying teens have consistently shown that the more often they have dinner with their parents, the less likely they are to smoke, drink and use drugs.”

This information was excerpted from a press release from CASA this week. How many more reasons do we need to have dinner together? Health? Money? Those are some very good reasons, but the relationship building and accountability to one another in love is another great reason. My favorite web celebrity in this area is Leanne Ely, author of Saving Dinner. She finds great solutions when it comes to family eating situations. I came across Leanne Ely and her fantastic work on Marla Cilley’s popular website FlyLady.net. I’m a huge fan of her menus and eating ideas. She also has a great book about Nutrition and a companion Unit Study.

Food allergy is one of my “interests” whether I like it or not. Now, many websites exist with information on coping with this affliction. There is no cure or treatment – only avoidance and survival. Here are a couple of links for recommended reading:

• Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network – my top pick
• Peanut Allergy Kid – a mom’s perspective

Can’t find an answer? Post your question here!

Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional, just a mom.

We still watch a lot of movies and subscribe to Netflix. Everyone in the house has a laptop that plays DVDs, so that’s not a problem. My husband still watches a lot of TV, but it’s out of sight from the kids on his computer (he has rabbit ears on it and also many networks put their shows on their websites now.)

Overall, though, this has seriously cut down on the amount of advertising coming into the house and unwanted television. Although I miss cooking shows, Discovery Channel and some other stuff, I can pretty much still find what I actually need and want, rather than passively absorb unnecessary, unwanted information.

I don’t think the kids miss it at all, and I certainly don’t.

If you need further convincing, visit http://www.turnoffyourtv.com/. This is an excellent resource packed with intelligent discourse about television.

A side benefit to all of this is that we don’t have a cable bill. It’s quite nice.