The other day, I was with my two-year-old granddaughter at the park, and next to me was a mom giving sweets to her little boy who was coughing and looked sick.
When I see a mom giving her child something to eat that is not good for his health, I get upset and sometimes I comment.
I find, that when I’m approaching without being offended, seven out of ten allows me to open a level of communication and to give some tips to moms.
A bit later, I saw the same mom taking out of a bag a packet that looked like chicken nuggets you can buy in a store and offered to her child. At the same time, I was feeding my granddaughter a healthy lunch. At this point, I would like to mention something about my granddaughter which often attracts attention. When she’s eating something, she likes, she makes these cute pleasurable sounds with her lips. And once again caught the attention of that mom.
I heard her say “I want to eat what your granddaughter eats. I laughed and then gave her a description of what I was feeding her. My child would never eat this type of food, said next, he dislikes anything healthy, and I let him eat whatever he likes.
The first thought that crossed my mind was that she tried to justify herself with the choice of food she gave her child as opposed to what my granddaughter was eating, and I was not wrong. Immediately after that, she told me she doesn’t believe you should force a child to eat and carried on saying that her parents had brought her up and her siblings with the same beliefs.
I’m not against it being okay to force a child to eat certain foods when he doesn’t like to eat them
However, a mother should have a say in providing proper nutrition to a child. It is not the child’s place to decide what to eat and what not to eat. I believe it is our responsibility as parents to raise children by giving them a strong foundation when they are young so that they can later become healthy adults.
Moms who have this mindset are the ones whose kids are often sick. That is proven by dietitians and moms who give importance to a healthy diet for their children, as well from my experience as a mom.
I often come upon parents who never stop startling me with their lack of knowledge on a healthy diet. They asked me questions and made statements like,
- Why giving a child sugar is bad
- Why ready-made food is bad
- Why soft drinks are bad
- Why salt is bad
- I grew up with fast food and nothing is wrong with me. {I would love to see their blood test results}
- I don’t see anything wrong with giving pizza and takeaway food to children. It’s their best food so I must deprive them? Letting kids be kids.
Let kids be kids, apples for free play and not about being unable to supervise their well-being. There is so much information on the net about children’s healthy eating and learning to cook healthy food.
Many parents perhaps are not aware, that one of the few responsible causes that children suffer from 1 diabetes is related to a bad diet
I will leave you but not before commenting that you are welcome to ask me any questions
Best wishes
Rori
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