Family Night 2007

Wyoming First Lady’s Family Night Take Out – Conversations to Go
By James E. Elias, Director of Training, Wyoming Health Marriage Initiative
And Stephanie Bennett, Event Coordinator, WHMI

Wyoming’s First Lady Nancy Freudenthal is teaming up with partners from around the state to present the third annual Wyoming First Lady’s Family Night on September 24, 2007.  This year’s Family Night event is designed to help families make the most of their time together.

Whether you’re cooking a gourmet meal or ordering food from your favorite take-out place, rest assured that what your kids really want at the dinner table is YOU!   Family meals are the perfect time to talk to your kids and to listen to what is on their minds.  More than a decade’s worth of research by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University has consistently found that the more often kids eat dinner with their families, the less likely they are to smoke, drink or use drugs.

CASA’s 2006 report The Importance of Family Dinners III found that compared to kids who have fewer than three family dinners per week, children and teens who have frequent family dinners are:

• At 70 percent lower risk for substance abuse
• One third less likely to try alcohol
• Half as likely to try cigarettes or marijuana
• Half as likely to get drunk monthly

This year’s Family Night theme is “Family Night Take Out – Conversations to Go!  Families across Wyoming will receive a Conversation Take Out Kit fashioned from a 1 quart Chinese food take out box.  The box is filled with 90 family conversation starter slips and includes a guide for parents to help them get the conversations going! 

“The kits are ready to be used at the park, in the car, after practice, around the dinner table, or even while you’re out grabbing dinner to go,” said Stephanie Bennett, the coordinator for this year’s event.  Families can take this fun and portable resource wherever they are headed, take turns reading from the conversation starter slips and enjoy great family conversations, even while they are on the go!

“I encourage our Wyoming families to use this wonderful resource to get conversations going.  Whether your at home, on the way to a game, or just out for a quick family dinner, these conversation starters are just the thing to get families talking,” says First Lady Nancy Freudenthal.  “We know when children spend time with their families they are much less likely to get into trouble or experiment with risky behavior.” Mrs. Freudenthal added.

The Family Night Take Out – Conversations to Go kits will be made available through fourth grade classes in both public and private schools.  In addition, organizations around the state are encouraged to host a Family Night event on Sunday September 23 or Monday September 24.

To find out more about Wyoming First Lady’s Family Night, register your organization to host an event or to order your own Family Night Take Out Kit log on to www.wyofams.org or call 1 – 866 – WYOFAMS today!