my nephew dillon who this story is about, my son pierce, my niece ava and niece sophia
Does this conversation sound familiar to you?
You say: "EAT your broccoli please"!
"NO"!
"YES"!
"I don't want it"!
"You better eat it because I said so"!
I'm sure we've all been caught saying this as parents at least once or twice {come on, let's all admit we've said this more times than we can even count on our fingers}. Don't worry you're not alone. I feel your pain and so do many other parents out there. I say 'pain' because most likely the scenario doesn't end pretty and early bed time with no dessert is in there some place too.
Well, have you tried explaining to your kids why they are supposed to eat the things they are eating? If the answer is YES then my follow-up question is, have you ever given them something that's healthy AND tastes good?
That right there is the magic KEY!
My sister-in-law called me up today to tell me a story. Her scenario went a little different than the one I first described. It went something like this:
Mom says, "here honey try this kookie {yes, it was a kookie karma cookie}. It's good for your body. Let's read the ingredients together."
She reads to him about all the healthy stuff ingredients and explains how refined sugar and dairy aren't healthy in cookies and so on and so forth.
Her son replies, "I like this" and he eats the whole thing.
-----> FAST FORWARD TO A PARTY A FEW NIGHTS LATER
Mom says, "here, you can have some cheesecake because you ate all your dinner"
"are the ingredients good for my body?"
"Well...NO"!
"Then I'm going to wait until we get home and eat one of those kookies"!
That's just one of many stories that I have heard from friends about how kids like to not only be hands on with food {pick it, grow it, make it and then eat it too} but they want to learn the real whys, not the "I said so, that's why" kinda whys. Once they learn and understand and find healthy foods that actually taste good to them, they will start to want to eat better.
OK - just thought I would share with you in case you're too at your wits end trying to get your children to eat healthier foods.
Remember two things: 1) education and 2) palate {find something your child thinks tastes good that is also good for him or her}
Diane Melnik
Great post!
And true. Unless a child is told WHY some foods are bad and what THEY will do, the child will most likely eat it... And over time, like it.
I agree! Teaching [and reading, too!] your children what it is we are consuming is so important, now days.
Kimberly (Ekman) Ganir
Juli, that is so funny! We are going NO Sugar in our house, yikes, and my son does the same thing. Any food that he gets he always asks now "Does it have sugar in it?" He is being sooo good about it!