Friday, June 3, 2011

A Rant.

I'm really tired of this "trick your kids to eat their vegetables" policy that's been developing among parents. This is how you get them to eat their vegetables: Cook the vegetables. Serve the vegetables. Now everyone, eat the vegetables. You could even *gasp* make more than one kind of vegetable at dinner and let them choose which one they want to eat.

The "this product has vegetables but your kids will never know" market is just angrifying. When a baby is going from milk to strained foods, they don't usually like anything the first time they try it. Same when they go to solid foods. Always try again, model good behavior, and for heaven's sake, stop letting them make demands at every meal! Of course they're always going to want chicken nuggets. If they wanted to play with a butcher knife, would you let them? Of course not!

We often do things that our children don't like because we know what's best. Keep them informed. Tell them their body needs important building blocks that only vegetables have. Use Lego's as an analogy, if you want to. But stop Stop STOP believing that you can't control what your child eats.

I might be an extremist, but I am the kind of person who would not hesitate to serve refused vegetables for the next meal. Quite frankly, I'm the mom, and you will eat what I put on the table.

Please know that I understand that there are some things that a person just will not like. I don't like mushrooms. But I'll eat them if I have to. Because. It's. What's. Being. Served. The food industry is supporting poor behavior in children. DOWN WITH ANARCHY!


4 comments:

  1. I have never had a prouder moment...well said, My Child!

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  2. AMEN!!! I despise this new-agey thought that you can't make your children do things they don't want. They are YOUR kids, and YOU are the boss as long as they are under your roof. I plan to make Garrett at least try new things, and if he doesn't honestly like it, fine. I don't like some things too. But he is going to try it or get a spanking and that is that. Thank you Sam, for standing up for us mothers who actually have some sense when it comes to raising children.

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  3. Please no mushrooms here either

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