Quit blaming your kids!

I watched Oprah today with my two sons 7-10 and it was a sad story of child abuse...long story short, the kid would get so hungry he would eat paperbags...my son looked at me and said sorry for being so fussy tonite at dinner...sometimes our kids need a wakeup call about how good they have it, and if eating healthy is the worst thing a mom does to them then they should count their lucky stars!!! My boys got the point!

I kind of grew up on pizza & fast food. Now I have cravings all the time... I don't have kids yet but I want to overcome the cravings before I do! I know I wouldn't want them to think of junk food as "comfort food" like I do.

i agree. we should execute any parents that give their kids anything with processed sugars in it. then with the parents out of the way, we can put the kids to work in the salt mines.

YES! More salt for us! Muahahahahahahahah! Muahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

So true! Thanks for the post!

meh, guess I will be the first to say, all is well in moderation. My daughter gets some processed poision every now and again. does that mean I blame her? um no. I feel like the opposite of what some have said, becuase of the way MY mother was... with being so strict, no snacks, no junk, is the reason I ate the way I did, I was a junk food junkie, I would get it in wherever and whenever I could becuase I was never allowed it growing up... SO one of the new things for me is live it in moderation. I think if we allow moderate "unhealthy" snacking, then we teach our children about healthy choices, and that a "bad snack" once in a while is okay. Guess I am a bad mother LOL

im with you on this one my kids still eat some junk but i workin on it for sure i changed all bread to wheat changed there sugary cereal to a more healthy version etc but they still have chicken nuggets, french fries and the occasional candy bar

The other part of this equation is why blame someone else's eating habits for what goes into your mouth, Mom? It sounds like just one more excuse to blame someone else for our not being able to control our own body.


On a happier note, this ROCKS, funky spunky!! :laugh::laugh:

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

I absolutely agree! I wish more adults had this mindset. My mother is one of those moms that always kept junk food in the house like cookies, rice krispies, sugary food, brownies, chips... the list goes on and on. No wonder I always overate as a kid and got used to eating such bad food. She would always take me to Burger King, Taco Bell or McDonalds. I remember after my soccer practices she would take me to McDonalds and let me get a Big Mac, fries and a Frostee. Even an ADULT shouldn't be eating that as a meal! I wish she would have taught me from a younger age to eat well, but unfortunately that wasn't the case and I'm still pretty much going through fast food withdrawals while I try to lose weight. It's gotten a lot better since I first started MFP, but there are days where I'll just crave sugar and fatty foods endlessly and it's so hard to resist.

Anyway, my lesson learned is that I never want my kids to have to go through this. Even though I never got horribly overweight (my highest weight was 200 pounds), my self-esteem was awful and I always got made fun of in middle school. I definitely don't want that for my kids. Fruits and veggies for them! And I'll punch them anytime we pass a McDonalds so they'll never want to go inside LOL

Honestly, I wish it were that simple in my household. Unfortunately I don't do the shopping for everyone in the house as if I did, I'd get nothing but complaints from the youngest, and somehow most powerful, member of the family(my boyfriend's son). It's crap to be quite honest because I buy all of this wonderful, healthy, nutritious and delicious food and when I prepare a family meal, the youngest inevitably balks and his father makes him something else. The other son and even my boyfriend will eat anything I cook, so I know it's not my cooking abilities. I happen to be quite skilled in the kitchen, in fact. It's just so frustrating sometimes for me and I've taken to preparing my meals separately on most nights that we have the boys just to avoid the sulking and listless picking at food.

Even worse is my boyfriend's lack of desire and/or ability to prepare a meal that didn't originate from a can or box. I can't count how many times I've come home from my night classes only to find that, despite an overflowing pantry/freezer/refrigerator, they've opted to get take out. His reply to my query as to why he does this when we have a house full of food is always "I don't know what to make with it". I've offered to show him a few quick and easy recipes but he shows no interest whatsoever.

Oh and don't get me started on their steady diet of pop tarts for breakfast. Eww, 200 calories of artificially flavored cardboard. I'll admit that I've given my boyfriend tons of grief over his obsession with stocking the cupboards with the abominable rectangles to no avail. He buys them in bulk in huge boxes of 36 or 48. For 200 calories I have a delicious filling bowl of creamy oat bran or multi-grain hot cereal with almond milk, flax seed meal and blueberries.

Do I let this derail my eating at all? Not for a second! In a strange way, it strengthens my resolve and convictions to be a healthy human being. I ignore the constant supplies of cookies, ice cream, pop tarts, peanut butter cheese crackers, Capri Sun, 2 liter bottles of soda, french fries, frozen pizzas, etc. and I eat foods rich in nutrients, flavor and all around deliciousness. In summation, I believe that parents who blame their children for their lack of ability to eat healthy foods are only deluding themselves.

Wow, didn't mean for that to turn into a rant.



*edited to fix a small grammatical error

I only wish my teenage boy wouldn't eat all the fresh fruit as soon as I get home from the store. I'm trying to eat much healthier, but its hard when he eats an entire cantelope, all the grapes, strawberries, blueberries etc...

I do want to add that my husband's mom did not stock her cabinets with junk food, no sugar cereal , no Debbie snacks, no crap whatsoever, like my family and the three sibling grew to be obese in their Pre- teens. Meanwhile, my family ate crap and we all are skinny. How does that work?

Since I started here I've had a lot less junk in the house so when my 6 year old son wanted a snack I gave him raw veggies with some hummus. He gobbled it up and came back asking for more red and yellow pepper strips of all things!

I do want to add that my husband's mom did not stock her cabinets with junk food, no sugar cereal , no Debbie snacks, no crap whatsoever, like my family and the three sibling grew to be obese in their Pre- teens. Meanwhile, my family ate crap and we all are skinny. How does that work?

Just because you are thin does not mean you are healthy. Have you ever heard of being "skinny-fat"? You can be a VERY thin person and have a high percentage of body fat if you get the accurate test at the doctors office. It also doesn't mean it is not clogging your arteries. I have heard of thin and active people getting heart attacks because their food clogged their arteries.

I agree. When I go grocery shopping I buy 4 or 5 different kinds of fruit, but only one kind of cookies. My cookies are still gone in 1 day, (I have 5 kids, so it doesn't take long) but the rest of the week they are eating fruit.

You Rock!!