Today's Thought (s)

Never ever for the sake of peace and quiet deny your own experience.

Live the life you love.

As you get older, you really just want to be surrounded by good people; people who are good for you, good to you, and good for your soul.

Monday, August 11, 2014

Kids Eating Healthy

I just read an article in The Boston Globe on the difficulty parents are having on instilling healthy eating habits.  It seems that the default of many parents is to make sure that their little ones are "at least" eating something, even if that something is nothing more than calorie-laden, non-nutritious junk food.  Uh...another example of letting the patients run the asylum.  "But she won't eat anything else, and I have to give her something" is an oft repeated whine.  Call me cruel, but when they get hungry they will eat.

I'm not advocating sending your child into the school system with nada because I don't want DSS to come knocking on your door and putting your kids into foster care, but I do heartily suggest that when your children, to whom you have been granted the awesome privilege and responsibility to guide are resistant to what you know to be in their best interests, that you don't simply fold and give in because it's easier.  Good parenting is no walk in the park; it is hard work and sometimes requires nerves of steel and a will equally as strong.  Those little people who have blessed your life come here as a bundle of evolved synapses and neurons and can run circles around us, mentally -- they just don't have the verbal skills initially to demonstrate it.  Don't think that you are damaging their psyche by not allowing them to consume all the wrong things that will adversely affect their health.

Yes, I know that this has become a Twinkie and Big Mac nation, with a healthy dose of Five Guys fries (my favorite) thrown in, and it's alright to indulge the kids sometimes, but the key word is S.O.M.E.T.I.M.E.S...otherwise, you are encouraging and even pushing them down the road to a life of ill health.  Is that what you want?  No, I didn't think so.  So man up, or put your big girl underpants on (as the case may be) and work on leading your young charges down the primrose path to a healthy respect for good nutrition and a strong body.  Let the treats be the treats and not the main attraction.

Be well, and have a fantabulous day!!