If your family is anything like the average American family, you go out to eat 4.5 times per week. As a parent, you may find this concerning. After all, doesn’t a happy and healthy family always eat around the dining room table together? Well, eating at home is definitely a great thing and should be encouraged. However, eating out is nowhere near as bad as you might think and provides many benefits.
1. Unique Family Time Together
Ask yourself this question: when do you feel the most together and connected as a family? Probably when you’re eating dinner together. If so, you’re like most families around the world. There’s nothing quite like a good meal to bring people together. Going out makes this experience even more enjoyable.
Why? You get to pick a unique destination with your family and debate where to go. That fun and often enjoyable debate may bring many unique memories to your family. You also get the chance to hang out in a new area and experience an unique environment, such as rooftop bars with a fantastic ambiance that appeal to many diners.
2. Great Food You Don’t Cook
While it’s amazing to prepare food for your family and watch them enjoy it as they eat, you might have one of those days where cooking seems like the worst possible option. We’ve all been there: too tired to prepare food but ready to eat. That’s where dining out is so useful.
Yes, you’re going to spend more money than you would if you ate at home: that’s a given. However, you get to have family time together and eat great food that you might not feel comfortable cooking.
3. Safer Cooking Environments
Did you know that foods can be frozen safely for 3-12 months without spoiling? If you didn’t, you can bet your restaurant does. Restaurants need to understand important facts like these, things that you as a parent may forget when trying to thaw out a two-year-old hamburger to make tacos.
While it is true that restaurants may cause food poisoning in some situations, they also have strict safety rules that they must follow to stay open. The best restaurants not only follow these guidelines but regularly throw out frozen food and stock only the freshest ingredients for their savvy customers.
4. Less Work to Do After Dinner
After you finish cooking and eating, what’s the worst part of the day? Cleaning up the plates, washing the dishes, and putting away leftovers. Nobody enjoys this step and, after a hard day at work, it’s probably the last thing that you want to do with your free time.
Well, going out to eat with your family eliminates this need by letting other people take care of you instead. Is this laziness? Not at all! You work hard for your money, and you deserve to relax in your few free hours. Thankfully, restaurants will take care of all of these steps for you with no complaint.
5. Educational Opportunities
More and more restaurants are creating healthier food options for their customers. For example, there are many salads and lean-meat dishes that you can eat that won’t add pounds to your waistline. Use your restaurant visits as an educational opportunity for your children’s healthier eating.
For example, tell them they can only eat healthy meals when they go out and pick a few dishes from which they can choose. When they eat a tasty healthy meal, they may be inspired to turn to other healthier dishes in the future and lose weight.
As you can see, going out to the restaurant with your family provides many benefits to you as a parent. Don’t think that you’re doing your children a disservice by giving them a chance to have some healthy food in a fun environment.
