Issues, Etc. The Importance of Family Meals – Tim Goeglein, 11/11/25 (3152)
Nov 11, 2025
Tim Goeglein, Vice President at Focus on the Family and author, dives into the significance of family meals. He shares heartfelt memories of dinners shaping his upbringing and the crucial conversations that took place. Highlighting research, he emphasizes how regular family dinners lead to better outcomes for youth. Goeglein critiques the modern trend of replacing meals with screens and echoes Reagan's thoughts on the power of dinner table discussions, urging families to prioritize this lost practice for character building.
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Formative Dinner Table Memories
- Tim Goeglein recalls sitting at the dinner table at 16 absorbing his parents' concerns about the nation's economy and family business impacts.
- He connects those memories to nightly family dinners he and his wife kept while raising their sons, highlighting lasting influence.
Don't Substitute TV For Dinner Talk
- Avoid replacing family dinners with watching television together; TV is a poor substitute for conversation over a meal.
- Choose lively, heartfelt discussions at the table rather than passive shared screen time.
Dinner Table Sparks Civic Conversation
- Ronald Reagan's line 'all great change in America begins at the dinner table' highlights the civic and relational power of conversation around meals.
- Tim argues TV watching during meals cannot substitute for the meaningful talking that shapes citizens and families.
