Finding that balance

If I could wish away all the candy and junk food in the world I would, in two seconds flat. Then I wouldn't have to worry about my toddler or teenager gorging themselves silly and then not eating a healthy dinner. Last night I went with Jackson and his Dad to a fall festival at a local church and even though there were veggie hot dogs (yay!) for us to eat, Jackson only wanted brightly colored cupcakes and anything that was wrapped in shiny, crinkly paper that tasted like artificial flavors and colors. 

Since Jackson eats a mostly* vegan diet I probably stress over this stuff more than your average parent. One of the reasons I changed our diet was for health reasons. I don't want to have to cure a disease, or diseases, when our diet can preventa whole host of medical problems down the road. I realize that having a cupcake here and there, or a sucker at the doctor's office** isn't going to automatically cause my children to have a coronary. This is where my struggle is.

I know that when children aren't fed certain foods that they can get them else ware. I rarely make anything fried, maybe twice a year, and yet Derick manages to eat all fried foods at school. If it's fried, battered or looks nothing like real food then he makes a beeline for it. It's what kids do. I don't feed Jackson candy and yet somehow he already knows what it is and is well adept at getting it. I know I can't control everything and I honestly don't want to control my children and their eating like that.

I do, however, want to instill the importance of a diet rich in whole foods that don't come with a bar code or shiny packages. I want them to learn how to properly cook a meal for themselves that doesn't involve open package, peel back plastic wrap, turn microwave on, enjoy. That's not to say I don't eat a frozen bean burrito on occasion, but I know how to make my own bean burrito from scratch (tortilla, beans and all the toppings) and I want them to learn the same things and understand the importance of such a lesson.

I realize that I sound like one of thosemothers. One of those mothers who's kid will end up in intensive therapy later in life saying to his therapist "I just wanted a damn sucker for christ sake" and the therapist will say "You're mom's insane, that'll be $200, please." But I also know there are worse things to get my kid to seek professional help.

I just have to find that balance between crazy mother and normal mother. I think most mother's are seeking for the same thing. Or at least I hope so.

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*I say he eat a mostly vegan diet because I'm certain he's given non-vegan things when I'm not around.

** Why do doctor's offices have suckers?! You'd think they'd have the prime opportunity for fostering healthy habits and they choose to serve sugar-laden crap. Ugh.

Comments

[Jess]

This stuff is so interesting to me. I already wonder about how to do this with my own kids and I don't even have kids. I think the key here is moderation, as you say. One day at a festival is not the biggest deal. Eating processed crap every day is a much bigger deal. But all the research seems to show that if parents model healthy behaviors for their kids, the kids are more likely to adopt those behaviors as well. So I think you're ahead of the curve there. I think the only danger would be if you totally banned any kind of unhealthy foods, because then they would just seek them out elsewhere and overindulge.

[Holly]

I don't think you sound crazy at all -- actually pretty inspirational. I love that you said, "I don't want to have to cure a disease, or diseases, when our diet can preventa whole host of medical problems down the road."

I think the fact that you just have that attitude to begin with sets you WAY ahead of most (even a lot of doctors, so hey -- look at you!) :) You have good intentions, that's all that matters.

[Natalie]

I worry about this all the time and I don't even have kids! I see what parents send their kids with for snack, even though we have sent notes home that their snack is supposed to be nutritional. I wish the cookie and chip aisles didn't exist in the grocery store. Before I was married I didn't even go down those aisles. Now I've fallen off the wagon and buy at least one bag of chips every time I go.