The Food Fight TKO - And Your Childern Are the Champs

You take a deep breath, a chance to relax with your family at the dinner table, and seconds later it happens.  The calls to be excused begin to echo across the room, hardly a bite has been taken, not even a "how has your day" been asked.  You become offended, you have been preparing your elaborate meal for hours, or maybe its the fact that you spent hard earned money on that meal, or they that you took a few minutes out of your extremely busy life to get food on the table.  Whatever your reason the fight begins, finish your plate if you want some junk food before bed, take as many bites as you are old or whatever technique you use to get your child to eat.  Its time to end the fight and this time your child is right.

I know, I know if you child doesn't eat he will soon be on a TV commercial with Ethiopian kids, your neighbors will be dropping off $0.20 a week so you can purchase some grains to feed him.  And I know, how will your child get the nutrients he needs to be that professional athlete, he's one plate away from sacking Manning on Sunday night.  I'm here to tell you, in my best Frozen singing voice, let them go, let them go.  I know you have spent hours preparing that meal and spent hard earned money that will go to waste.  But look back to your childhood.  If it was anything like mine you were constantly told to finish your plate, and on top of that bags of doritos, mountain dew and licorice always laid close by.  I learned at a very young age to eat even if I wasn't hungry, and often awarded with more food I didn't need, but who can resist dessert?  Those horrible food companies feed you full of man made chemicals that are so addictive, they could steal customers away from Heisenberg (Breaking Bad reference, he cooks the best crystal meth if your still unsure, its blue if you want to impress your husbands).   But its at that time you create eating habits that will affect you for the rest of your life.  These habits don't seem so bad at first but years later you're sitting behind a desk wondering how to lose all this weight. Habits that have created one of the most obese, sick countries in the world. 

Your kids haven't formed these habits yet. Take a seat on the canvas and don't start teaching it to them.  Trust nature, your kids know when they need to eat and how much.  I see it with my son, he has way better eating habits than I do.  He hasn't had years to create horrible habits.  He eats 5 small meals a day, which include supper where he hardly eats anything at all.  By forcing him to eat more than he wants we begin to create a very bad habit.  Its going to be hard watching that food/money go to waste but it's time to learn something from your kids (besides patience of course).  Instead of making elaborate meals, make smaller meals.  Instead of buying everyone meals, split meals.  Don't fight over how much to eat, focus your fight on what your child eats.  Healthier, better-tasting options are popping up all the time.

So at your next meal, take a deep breath, sitting at the dinner table should no longer be a battle.  Trust nature, let your children eat when they are hungry, let them eat as much as they want, and focus your battle on what they eat, not how much.