"Getting home for dinner wasn't easy," he writes, "but it wasn't all that difficult either. I found it just required the commitment and wherewithal to say, 'No thanks' to the late phone call, the garrulous client, the lingering student, my own laziness. . . ."

Research suggests that family meals need not be home-cooked dinners to benefit kids. What seems to count most is time spent eating together without arguments or scolding. Takeout and prepared foods can ease the time crunch. Sharing breakfast or lunch is just as valuable as having dinner together. "It's really important for families to take a good look at what might work for them," [Dianne Neumark-Sztainer] says. "There's not just one way to do it."

What also helps is getting children and teens involved in planning and food preparation as much as possible. "The most successful meals were the ones where my children participated in choosing the menu, prepping the ingredients, cooking the food," [Cameron Stracher] writes. "This is not always an easy thing to do -- it requires patience, compromise, a strong stomach -- but it works. Like life, the messy parts are often the most rewarding, but you have to get dirty first."