You let your kids eat what??

Shanna_Inc86

To my parents out there: do you enforce all of your eating habits on your children?

I've been having this conflict because there are things my 5y.o. simply will NOT eat...so I still let her eat things, that I have cut out of my diet for various reasons (usually b/c they upset my stomach).
Example: I think frozen dinners are gross unless it's Amy's brand. Also notta fan of pizza rolls, lunchables, boxed mac'n'cheese, tater tots...you get my point. My daughter, being 5, loves these things. Now she also loves salads, including spinach, and healthy food. But she's not all about my Quinoa as much as I keep trying to get her to try it. Most nights, we're eating different meals.

Just curious to what the rest of you do and ideas to switch her over to more of my food w/o making dinner time horrific

PearsPeppersandPeanutButter

Heck my husband and i eat different meals almost every night too. I figure he'll come around eventually, but just make sure that your daughters meals are as healthfully made as possible, but if you don't ever let her eat those things she'll probably ate healthy food eventually too.

kris4chloe

last night my entire family ate spaghetti with sweet italian sausage and i ate chicken and zucchini.

some nights we eat the same but there are alot of things i can't get my family to eat. they like chicken and zucchini too (but we had it the night before).

I do try to make everything myself and use whole foods, even if it is something i prefer to not spend my calories on. there are alot of things that i just will not buy anymore and since i do the shopping, they have no choice, they have to eat what i bring in the house.

amyniceneasy

This has been an issue at my house for years. You see...I've always been overweight despite eating much healthier than most of my friends and my daughter has followed my path. The crazy thing is ...we eat so much more healthy than her skinny friends and their families do. Since she's overweight, when its just us I enforce the heatlhy choices, however, when her friends are around I'm not as strict. I don't want to single her out for having to be more careful in front of her friends. Being a kid is hard enough. When her friends come to our house..they know they will not get the junk and will be expect to at least try everything that I give them at meals. That doesnt mean I've banned all unhealthy foods from the house. I have chips, cookies, ice cream etc. in the house..but both my girls know they can not eat from the box, they get only one serving, and they both know how to use the scale to weigh it out. They are allowed one treat per day. When we go out and they want the chicken tenders (like every kid)...they get to choose chicken tenders OR the fries...not both. Only one thing can be fried. So more often then not...they will get those darned chicken tenders with a salad or broccoli. I'm trying to teach them that nothing is off limits. To be honest though...it's not working to help her take off weight. She's as overweight as she ever was. It makes me want to cry.

Bulldogmama1

I try to incorporate healthy eating with my boys. They are 3 and 18 months. They both eat whole wheat pasta, most veggies, and fruit. They do get the mac and cheese, tator tots, and sweets here and there. I have always pushed the healthy foods with them. My friends always comment about how I can get them to eat fresh veggies instead of chips. One of the many resons I need to get myself healthy so I dont feel like a hypocrite

SoDamnHungry

That sounds like a pain, but at least she eats some healthy foods.

Smuterella

If I didn't eat what my mother gave me she would serve it up to me for my next meal. I'm not a parent, so I'm probably going to get flamed here, but when did parents start pandering to kids like this? I'm just curious, did the parents of this generation do that? Mine didn't and certainly the previous generation couldn't afford to.

scraver2003

I used to think I would just make my kid eat what we ate. That I would sit him at the table and say it's this or nothing. Now that I have a three year old = HAHAHAA! He won't touch meat. Sometimes we will ahve him "try" a bite and we tell him he can spit it out if he doesn't like it... of course, he sptis it out. BUT when I pick up our CSA veggies from the farm, he begs for "leaves" (aka, spinach) or green beans, etc. He loves carrots and broccoli. He eats a lot of dairy. And is a fruit monster. He eats popcorn and whole wheat pasta (though - I better not dare try to put sauce on his pasta).

So - he isn't going to sit down to steak and green beans... but he will sit down to just the grean beans. He won't touch mac 'n' cheese or other foods that most kids love... so while he is usually eating something somewhat different from us... he has somehow come out a pretty healthy eater.

If only I could get him to eat some nuts or beans...

rml_16

Balance, moderation. And make sure she's active.

ItsMeRebekah

Since i am not a short order cook, nor do i buy the other stuff, yep, they eat what i eat and they like it.

rml_16

If I didn't eat what my mother gave me she would serve it up to me for my next meal. I'm not a parent, so I'm probably going to get flamed here, but when did parents start pandering to kids like this? I'm just curious, did the parents of this generation do that? Mine didn't and certainly the previous generation couldn't afford to.

If my parents were having something I didn't like, my mother always made me buttered noodles. I can tell you if my mother did what yours did, I would have starved to death.

phillieschic

With me eating healthy and everyone else being EXTREMELY picky, I feel like a short order cook most nights. My saving grace is that my boys ask for steamed veggies every night and my youngest (9) son takes kiwi and grapes in his lunch everyday for school (along with a cosmic brownie and a sandwich!).

So, yeah...I feel ya!

Smuterella

If I didn't eat what my mother gave me she would serve it up to me for my next meal. I'm not a parent, so I'm probably going to get flamed here, but when did parents start pandering to kids like this? I'm just curious, did the parents of this generation do that? Mine didn't and certainly the previous generation couldn't afford to.

If my parents were having something I didn't like, my mother always made me buttered noodles. I can tell you if my mother did what yours did, I would have starved to death.

We were very poor, there is no way my mother could have afforded to put two different meals on the table. I don't know, times change. It seems junk food is so cheap now as you can bulk buy it. I sound old, ha!

TKHappy

I try to incorporate what I eat in the meals I cook for the rest of my family, however, I still end up cooking multiple dinners. My husband and step son pretty much eat the same things (my husband has more 'fresh' stuff do to his diabetes), my daughter would rather have salad and fruit....so a lot of times she has a different dinner; my son is low functioning autistic with serious sensory issue and food has always been a difficult thing so he eats "his" foods; and then there's me.

We rarely all eat the same thing, and when Pizza Friday rolls around....Im always eating something else!

veganbaum

If I didn't eat what my mother gave me she would serve it up to me for my next meal. I'm not a parent, so I'm probably going to get flamed here, but when did parents start pandering to kids like this? I'm just curious, did the parents of this generation do that? Mine didn't and certainly the previous generation couldn't afford to.

I think that when food is more plentiful, it's easier for a culture to slip into those types of behaviors. Add to that companies marketing "kid" food, and there you have it. Suddenly it starts to become a cultural norm that some things are "kid" food and some things aren't (which is pretty silly when you think of the amazing variety of foods that different cultures eat - e.g. traditional Korean food would probably not be seen as "kid-friendly" in a lot of minds, but their kids eat it). My mom was the same - ate it or nothing, and we didn't have the money to be picky. You ate or your belly was hungry. I do think it's especially strange when parents don't eat things when their reasoning is that they don't consider them healthy, but then allow their kids to eat them.

OP - Maybe those things can be phased out? Like she can only have it on Saturday for a treat or something? Sounds like you've helped her to develop generally good eating habits, so maybe allowing it as a treat wouldn't be too difficult?

qtiekiki

Balance, moderation. And make sure she's active.

^This. Dinner is always a home cooked meal, and they eat what is served. Lunches are mostly leftovers from the night before, but sometimes there's mac & cheese from the box and ramen. That's ok with me since they eat pretty well most of the times.

rml_16

If I didn't eat what my mother gave me she would serve it up to me for my next meal. I'm not a parent, so I'm probably going to get flamed here, but when did parents start pandering to kids like this? I'm just curious, did the parents of this generation do that? Mine didn't and certainly the previous generation couldn't afford to.

If my parents were having something I didn't like, my mother always made me buttered noodles. I can tell you if my mother did what yours did, I would have starved to death.

We were very poor, there is no way my mother could have afforded to put two different meals on the table. I don't know, times change. It seems junk food is so cheap now as you can bulk buy it. I sound old, ha!

I think we're about the same age. When I was really little, we were pretty poor because my dad was still in grad school. But once he got a full-time teaching job (at a prison, no less), it was better. We weren't rich. But even so, a serving of buttered noddles isn't expensive. And since she knew ahead of time I wouldn't eat what she and my father were going to have, it wasn't like she was throwing food away because she just didn't make any for me.

I was a very difficult child with food. But I would have starved myself before I would eat something I didn't like the taste of. I've gotten much better about that, but I have sympathy for picky eaters because I remember what it was like.

mooglysmom

I had to get my kid off chicken nuggets. You know, the frozen kind? I don't know if its Autism related, or what, but he wouldn't eat anything else. Ever. He would simply NOT EAT. For days.

Eventually, I just stopped buying them. We had a rough week, but he finally got off the nugget kick.

He's still beyond picky. There are plenty of night where he doesn't eat dinner. Gotta pick your battles!

mgmlap

It depends...but my kids are older and will eat what I tell them to eat...They have a varied palate..from sushi to raman noodles. I will buy frozen stuff for them..and cookies..but I wont partake. But at the end of the day..I make sure they have enough of their macros..

scraver2003

If I didn't eat what my mother gave me she would serve it up to me for my next meal. I'm not a parent, so I'm probably going to get flamed here, but when did parents start pandering to kids like this? I'm just curious, did the parents of this generation do that? Mine didn't and certainly the previous generation couldn't afford to.

We do that sometimes, too. If we give him something for dinner and he doesn't eat it, we pack it up for lunch at daycare. I try not to pander to him (though, sometimes we do). I actually try to learn from him. He doesn't eat if he isn't hungry. He turns down cookies if he isn't in the mood for them. He eats veggies and fruits everyday.
Compairing us to my parents - my mom didn't work when I was three. We all sat down to dinner together. I think a lot of families don't get the chance to do that every night. We do on the weekends... but weekdays are rushed. I commute 40 - 60 mins to work each way. work all day, race to daycare. By the time hubs and I co-ordinate cooking dinner and bath time and all that - it would just be TOO late for us to all sit together. It is usually us preping something quick for him (last night he had some ravioli - sometimes he will have pasta and broccoli - he preffers his veggie raw) then while I gave him a bath and put him in bed, hubs grilled us up some chicken and asparagus.

veganbaum

If I didn't eat what my mother gave me she would serve it up to me for my next meal. I'm not a parent, so I'm probably going to get flamed here, but when did parents start pandering to kids like this? I'm just curious, did the parents of this generation do that? Mine didn't and certainly the previous generation couldn't afford to.

If my parents were having something I didn't like, my mother always made me buttered noodles. I can tell you if my mother did what yours did, I would have starved to death.

We were very poor, there is no way my mother could have afforded to put two different meals on the table. I don't know, times change. It seems junk food is so cheap now as you can bulk buy it. I sound old, ha!

I think times started changing post Depression/WWII. The economy started booming, you had the whole nuclear family expansion, spread of suburbia, no more rationing, etc. Pre WWII it just wouldn't have been likely that most families could have afforded different meals. And even if they could have, given the family relationships of the time, it seems unlikely that mom (as the homemaker) would have made several different meals, especially when she had so many other household things to do. But that's just an idea, I think it would actually be an interesting thing to study.