Dinner tonight was a little less than stellar. It was a long weekend, the house was still a disaster, and as dinner time approached, everything in me envied the house next door that just had pizza delivered to their doorstep.
Thankfully, I scrounged up some egg-fried rice with veggies and we took everything outside and ate at our picnic table…and the kids couldn’t have been happier! They didn’t notice that I was completely out of culinary inspiration…they enjoyed the garden veggies and fresh eggs, eaten picnic style.
It’s amazing to see how such simple ingredients – fresh peas, broccoli, onions, mushrooms and bell peppers can transform ordinary rice into a meal. Sometimes I find myself afraid of the simple flavors, many right from our garden, and I feel the need to produce something kid-friendly that won’t elicit complaints or a dinner-time battle of the wills.
Amazingly, our current culture has trained children to prefer non-food over real food! Take a peak into any public school cafeteria and you’ll see lunches of jello, cheese puffs, a candy bar and a soda (and then we wonder why our son has problems sitting still in class!). We’ve conditioned our children to prefer sugar and unidentifiable puffy neon-orange balls (loosely labeled as “cheese”) to vine-ripened tomatoes, and crisp cucumbers.
As parents, it’s not because we don’t care about the health and nutrition of our children, it’s simply due to:
- misinformation (we didn’t realize that the USDA food pyramid is completely misleading and inaccurate)
- the need for convenience (we need something we can eat on the run as we head out the door),
- or an unhealthy desire to make sure that Junior never has to eat anything that he doesn’t like (he doesn’t want his veggies? ok, give him some chips or a cookie because he’ll be hungry later).
And here unfortunately, is our impasse. See, we can educate ourselves on the need for a real-foods based diet, and there are most definitely real foods that can be made ahead, thus making them more convenient. However, when Junior doesn’t want to eat his peas and we’re afraid that he’ll wake up hungry later or be annoyed that we actually made him eat his peas, we give him something else (usually something sweet, so that he won’t complain) and send him on his merry way, not realizing that we’ve just taught Junior that:
- You don’t have to obey me when I tell you to do something. (ie: “eat your peas”)
- Your desire to be happy is more important to me than your nutrition.
- You’re in charge.
ouch.
Moms, let me be the first to encourage you…eating vegetables is not a form of abuse. It’s ok…no, it’s important, that Junior learns to appreciate the simple flavors. Don’t be afraid of serving meals that aren’t necessarily “exciting” that are made from simple ingredients without complex flavors and oodles of sugar, spices, preservatives or condiments.
Your job is not to impress your children and become a short-order cook, pleasing everyone’s immediate food-demands. Your job is to nourish and care for their bodies and health.
Will Junior suddenly have an epiphany one day that these humble vegetable are what he should be craving and he’ll ravenously devour the bowl of peas in front of him? Um, no – not if he’s been conditioned to whine for an easy substitute.
Will you be tempted to give him something else just to fill him up? Yes, but don’t do it.
Whether Junior is 3 or 13, it’s our jobs as parents to retrain their taste buds and to guide them in making healthy choices.
It’s just like a child who is used to playing video games or watching television for 5 or 6 hours each day. They are so conditioned to over-stimulation that their minds and nervous systems can’t handle the silence and they go through something akin to withdraw symptoms when technology is taken away from them.
It’s the same with food; if our children are used to consuming processed foods, void of nutrition and laden with sugar, then of course they aren’t going to want vegetables – and we act shocked when they complain about them!! Their bodies and palettes have to be retrained.
And parents, that’s our job…
What are some of your favorite “simple” meals??
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You bet taste buds can be retrained!
In the past year we have ordered take-out pizza three times, and three times in a row the boys have refused to eat it. When on an 1800-mile road trip this summer, we stopped for fast food twice and they just picked at it. The only restaurants they like are the local Chinese and Mexican restaurants that cook from scratch.
Homemade pizza is our “sure-deal” for eating veggies. I blend extras into the sauce- sometimes mushrooms, green peppers, and greens. Our four-year-old will ask for Monster Pizza, where I cook up and blend in a block of frozen spinach. Yuck? Yep, but tastes really good.
I like your picnic idea. Everything tastes better with sunshine!
This is terrific advice, and yes, tastebuds can be retrained to really enjoy real food as opposed to junk.
I used to be in a carpool when my oldest was in kindergarten. I would arrive to pick up a little boy who lived in a rather chaotic household. His mother would feed him cake and other sweets-as much as he wanted-for breakfast, because “it was all he would eat.” And he had issues at school sitting still and paying attention. . .
Thanks Kelsi, I needed that!
Amen, Amen, Amen! My brother’s family is still on the “traditional” path even though we grew up otherwise. It’s so funny when the kids come over to our house because we eat things like spaghetti squash instead of pasta, raw granola bars instead of the processed kind and fruit is considered dessert. They baulked at first, but once they realized eating processed stuff was out of the question, now they LOVE it and enjoy getting into the groove of making healthy goodies with us. Even the very young ones talk about feeling better after a meal when they visit.
This was great, Kelsi. Did you hear me shouting “Amen!”?
I have been on a soapbox about this same issue. You can’t turn on the news without hearing a story about how overweight our children are, and yet who’s putting them there? The adults! Whether it’s the person in the school responsible for ordering the lunches, or filling the vending machines, or the parents buying processed stuff at the stores, it’s always the adults feeding these things to our kids and then we sit back and scratch our heads and wonder what happened. The kids aren’t doing the grocery shopping! Anyway, great post. I’m Anne from Life ont he Funny Farm (http://annesfunnyfarm.blogspot.com), here from the barn hop. Have a great day!
Kelsi
I love to read your comments, blog
But i dont come on facebook much
I am afraid I am missing great info
How else Can i check?
Hey thank you forn writing about These things
You are doing a great ministry
Inspiration
Hey Renata!!! You can subscribe to our blog so that it comes in your email if you’d like! There is a place in the sidebar on the left that says “Get Cheeky Bums in your inbox”. Just enter in your info there and when we publish an article it will come to your email. Hope you guys are doing well! We miss you!! – kelsi
I know all about this! For a long time we were a Tball and stop at McDonalds family and when that ended it was a struggle at first for my kids but they love home cooked meals and they are now used to packed sandwiches.
WooHooo! Can I double and triple like this post?! I do enjoy having fun with my children and doing nice things for them that make them happy, but I’m very clear that when it comes to food my job is not to entertain them but to nourish their growing bodies and to help them to develop good habits.
Hi! Found this on The Parenthood link up!
We started out this way with our daughters and they have no problem with real food; for us the challenge has been retraining ourselves as parents. We both grew up on junk food and spent our young adulthood in the drive through lane. I am jut now learning to appreciate whole foods and the rich flavors they provide over boxed Mac n Cheese!
So glad you linked up with the ‘Hood this week! And if you would please, quit writing such convicting stuff. 😉 Right now I’m playing the “we are trying to keep the kitchen tidy since the house is on the market card” and giving myself grace but we are gonna have to tighten up this gravy wagon soon and make it healthier for sure. Great post!
LOL! 🙂 I can’t imagine trying to keep the house clean enough for a showing! You my friend, will have a very large jewel in your crown in heaven, dedicated to this season of your life! 🙂 may you be blessed with a long nap and a venti latte! – kelsi
Loved this! I wont feel nearly as guilty tonight when i hold dessert hostage until every last piece of brocolli is eaten! Thanks! I found you on the hood and i am your newest follower!
Thank you for this article. I was raised on hot dogs, potato chips, and Hostess pies. I’ve spent the last 40 years trying to retrain my taste buds and get off my sugar and fat addiction. Mom’s aren’t doing their kids any favors by letting the kids be in charge at meal time.
You bet that taste buds can be retrained and “trained”. When we adopted our older children from Africa they never tasted 99% of what I served. And there was no way in the world I was going to allow picky eaters. (non of my children are picky eaters)….and we used different tactics (fun tactics) to get them to try new foods every day…and it worked. Now the only thing my children will not eat is mushrooms. So that is pretty good.
GREAT post.