You buy a dining table big enough for your family to eat at, and sometimes you buy one that can extend into an even bigger table for occasions. There is always at least one fight over the salt shaker, and it’s an attempt to find out how each other’s day was. Family dinners are actually on the decline, with nearly 60% of Americans reporting that the family today has fewer dinner somewhere they were growing up. Life is busier than ever before but here are five reasons that you should continue to eat as a family.

• You will build better relationships. When you eat meals together, you can strengthen your family bonds. It provides a time for you to be together, and for younger children it provides routine. This was a sense of security and safety and a feeling of belonging within the family. All the children also prefer to eat together in the family, because it means that they feel secure.

• You can encourage better eating habits. Eating family dinners is actually associated with healthy diet food patterns. If you’re trying to model good eating behaviors with your teenagers, especially at a time in life with the influence on eating is going to be heavily regarded in a celebrity life culture, you’re going to model better when you have everybody around the table for food.

• You can actually encourage better grades. When children eat around the table with you as part of the family for their dinner, they are better able to concentrate on school. Largely, this is because everybody eating together is able to feel more balanced, secure and as if the family life is solid. When this occurs, children feel much less stressed out, and they tend to do better in other aspects of their lives.

• The chance for exploration. If you put on a huge spread for your family, it encourages children to try new foods. From new dishes from the cultures, to simply trying out new textures and sources, children will be more inclined to try something new if they see you doing the same thing. Often, adults even struggle to try new things, but they still encourage the children to eat new foods. Model the right behavior, and you will give the children a chance for exploration.

• Everybody feels happier. When you know that you can look forward to sitting down with your family and discussing your day, you will feel happier as a result. The children feel more relaxed, you all manage to eat and clear up together as a unit, and it can really solidify how you feel about one another as a family.