Shocked and amazed
AmberJslimsAWAY
Posts: 2,339 Member
There have been a few posts recently about getting children to eat healthy. While I understand this is an area of concern, it should'nt be being addressed at 10, 11, 12, 13 etc. It should start when kids start eating real food. There are so many obese children now a days, parents just don't care and it pisses me off. "How do I teach my kid healthy choices?" First off, You serve healthy food, and that's what they get. Second, make your kid go outside!
YOU ARE THE PARENT!!!! What are my kids doing on the weekends? Either they are outside playing with the neighbors, jumping on the trampoline, riding bikes, scooters etc. or we are away from the house. This last Saturday we were out, seriously walking around all day long at a fair.
Also, my kiddos drink almost nothing but water, they have the once or twice a month soda as a treat. I'm baffled by some parents on here.
It's not hard to get your kids moving, it's not hard to get your kids eating well.
Had to get that off my chest
/rant
YOU ARE THE PARENT!!!! What are my kids doing on the weekends? Either they are outside playing with the neighbors, jumping on the trampoline, riding bikes, scooters etc. or we are away from the house. This last Saturday we were out, seriously walking around all day long at a fair.
Also, my kiddos drink almost nothing but water, they have the once or twice a month soda as a treat. I'm baffled by some parents on here.
It's not hard to get your kids moving, it's not hard to get your kids eating well.
Had to get that off my chest
/rant
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Replies
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amen sista!0
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Agree, by the time they are teenagers, you don't have as much control over what they eat and how much exercise they get. You need to develop the good habits when they are young. (They also don't listen to you when they are teenagers since they know everything.)0
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Agreed.
People seem to forget that though they look and act like small adults, they are in fact still learning.
Teach them to the best of your ability.
If you are unable, find someone that can.
And the best lesson you can teach is by example.
I grew up around women that yo-yo dieted, I in turn yo-yo dieted. After seeing for myself how ridiculous it was, I found this site to teach me a better way.
Don't rely on schools to do all the work, they're your kids.0 -
I completely agree. I have 5 children and they are outside any chance they get. I usually have to drag them in the house at dark. We are a very outdoor type of family though. We camp, hike, go whitewater rafting, etc. My children are all on the low range for their weight. I have always made healthy food with lots of vegetables and we do not have much "junk" food around. Portion control was my problem and why I am at the weight I am. My husband and I are working on that for us now and I am teaching the kids portion control also.0
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seriously!!!!!!!! I have always done this, and my 6 year old will pick broccoli over french fries, only wants half a cupcake because it is "too sweet" and would rather have fruit, wont drink juice at all. only wants water to drink..... because I never let her know that "veggies are gross" or cookies are a "reward". It is too late if the kid has already reached middle school!0
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Sing it girl! You are so right. When I was a kid we ate what was served and we didn't dare complain about it and we were always outside. When and if I have children it will be the same. I remember once in a blue moon we would get McDonalds for a treat or a bag of chips and a pop to share while we watched TGIF... lol takes me back.0
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seriously!!!!!!!! I have always done this, and my 6 year old will pick broccoli over french fries, only wants half a cupcake because it is "too sweet" and would rather have fruit, wont drink juice at all. only wants water to drink..... because I never let her know that "veggies are gross" or cookies are a "reward". It is too late if the kid has already reached middle school!
Exactly. My almost 8 year old's favorite food is broccoli. No joke.0 -
Could not agree with you more! It is pretty sad how kids are being made fun of and bullyed because they are over weight...It is so important to teach them a healthy lifestyle.0
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Word. I cook healthy balanced meals at home, and in our house, if you don't like what's being served, then you can go hungry (unless it's obviously something my son doesn't like---which I wouldn't make for him anyway). He pretty much always comes around and eats his vegetables
I don't cater to him, I am the parent, I make the rules. Of course sometimes I let him have a happy meal or a piece of candy, I'm not a monster, but he knows that those are special occasion treats for after a t-ball game, or when the whole family is having a treat. Same rules apply to my boyfriend and I, no special privileges.
Get the video game controller out of your kids hand (unless it's something active on the Wii or whatever), and put a basketball/baseball/football/etc in it. Kids don't play outside NEARLY as much as they used to. When I was a kid I was outside riding my bike or rollerblading from the moment I woke up until it got dark outside, only coming inside to eat lunch. Get your kids moving! They don't like sports? No problem! Get em in dance classes (I took tap and jazz for like 15 years), try karate, or just play tag outside.
More and more children have two working parents these days, as opposed to having a stay at home mom, and I think a lot of parents use this as a crutch. "We are both working so much, no time for cooking/exercise/etc." BS. I work full time (as does my bf) and we still make time to cook dinner, go to the gym, get my son doing active things including t-ball practice and games. IT CAN BE DONE. You just have to make it a priority.
BOOM.0 -
I totally agree with this. I don't even think a gaming system will be in our house because I'm not going to have a child sit inside and waste away to nothing while the world passes them by. There are too many positive activities that a child can get involved in to both help with self confidence and motivation. On top of that, anything to help give a child a small edge up on being a healthy adult is something that I would want to follow. Great post!!0
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I totally agree with this. I don't even think a gaming system will be in our house because I'm not going to have a child sit inside and waste away to nothing while the world passes them by. There are too many positive activities that a child can get involved in to both help with self confidence and motivation. On top of that, anything to help give a child a small edge up on being a healthy adult is something that I would want to follow. Great post!!
Totally agree on the no gaming system. I had maybe a nintendo 64 when I was a kid, but I rarely played it. My boyfriend never owned a single video game console in his life. He played sports instead. And even though he hasn't been playing competitive sports for about 8 years now, he's still in relatively great shape and is getting back into it. SO much easier to get back on track with good habits when you've known them all along!0 -
I totally agree with this. I don't even think a gaming system will be in our house because I'm not going to have a child sit inside and waste away to nothing while the world passes them by. There are too many positive activities that a child can get involved in to both help with self confidence and motivation. On top of that, anything to help give a child a small edge up on being a healthy adult is something that I would want to follow. Great post!!
Totally agree on the no gaming system. I had maybe a nintendo 64 when I was a kid, but I rarely played it. My boyfriend never owned a single video game console in his life. He played sports instead. And even though he hasn't been playing competitive sports for about 8 years now, he's still in relatively great shape and is getting back into it. SO much easier to get back on track with good habits when you've known them all along!
We have a game system, but it's for rainy days ect.0 -
I totally agree with this. I don't even think a gaming system will be in our house because I'm not going to have a child sit inside and waste away to nothing while the world passes them by. There are too many positive activities that a child can get involved in to both help with self confidence and motivation. On top of that, anything to help give a child a small edge up on being a healthy adult is something that I would want to follow. Great post!!
Gaming systems aren't evil and they aren't to blame. Lazy parents who let their children spend too much time on them are to blame.
We always had a gaming system growing up. Started out with atari (lol) and then nintendo and so on and so forth.
We were still very active children, constantly outside with our friends playing, biking, rollerblading, etc.
Sure we played video games sometimes but we didn't spend all day playing just because we had a gaming system.0 -
More and more children have two working parents these days, as opposed to having a stay at home mom, and I think a lot of parents use this as a crutch. "We are both working so much, no time for cooking/exercise/etc." BS. I work full time (as does my bf) and we still make time to cook dinner, go to the gym, get my son doing active things including t-ball practice and games. IT CAN BE DONE. You just have to make it a priority.
BOOM.
This ^! We both work. We both get in our exercise time. I come home, we all go walk as a family (she rides her bike to keep up), I do my Zumba and my video in the bedroom, she joins in the zumba..... not right..... but she has a BLAST dancing with Mommy. On the days that she has gymnastics or ballet, I can do a bit more. Then, we make dinner. A lot of times he and I make dinner together, its part of "our" time as we LOVE to cook. She does homework while we cook, then we eat, she gets a shower, its story time and then bed...... Excuses get in the way of WHATEVER it is you want to do.0 -
<snip> Excuses get in the way of WHATEVER it is you want to do.
I love this0 -
I totally agree with this. I don't even think a gaming system will be in our house because I'm not going to have a child sit inside and waste away to nothing while the world passes them by. There are too many positive activities that a child can get involved in to both help with self confidence and motivation. On top of that, anything to help give a child a small edge up on being a healthy adult is something that I would want to follow. Great post!!
We have a WII and an Xbox 360 with kinect, but most of the games we have are physical games and we ALL play them together. My 6 year old whoops my butt on wii tennis. She doesnt have any special kid games, if we cant do something outside, we play inside.
People who dont understand the negative effects that crap food and laziness have on a kid, who may well be a healthy kid, really gets to me. "Its ok, she is really active" or my favorite "He can have fried chicken and french fries because he is a little thin" are just ignorance. These kids will grow up thinking it is ok (like I did) and have weight issues when they get older. My endocrinologist thinks that a lot of my insulin resistance was brought on by my poor diet as a developing child. I havent told my parents this, as it would break their heart to know that they may have caused some of my weight problems, and I wont let it determine who I am now. But, I will NOT let the cycle continue to future generations because I didn't want to put in the time to fix it.0 -
YES! :drinker:0
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this is it. there are so many overweight young people these days, especially those in the early years. it really needs to be understood that an apple is no more expensive than a bar of chocolate, sure the chocolate tastes nice, but it needs to be reinforced that the apple tastes just as good, and is super good for you, and the best source of fast food is salad out of a bag, not fries out a paper cup at maccas!! 0
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my 22 month old wants to eat salad over having pizza however i still cant get him to like brocoli or chicken0
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seriously!!!!!!!! I have always done this, and my 6 year old will pick broccoli over french fries, only wants half a cupcake because it is "too sweet" and would rather have fruit, wont drink juice at all. only wants water to drink..... because I never let her know that "veggies are gross" or cookies are a "reward". It is too late if the kid has already reached middle school!
My girls are just like this!!! I have a 5, 4 and 2 year old and NONE of them will eat a full cupcake...ha ha ha.
They LOVE broccoli...and will eat carrots and snap peas over just about anything...other than yogurt maybe. They have never liked french fries and they each drink at least 3-4 big cups of water a day...Juice and Milk are a luxury and goodness only knows if they ever get soda (Sprite)...maybe when they are at grammas! Ok, no they do have it once in a blue moon, but they don't even finish a full glass.
My oldest will come home from school and grab an apple or some strawberries...we don't have chips in the house, she picks the snacks she wants....but I give her good options!
Do it early!!!! They will start making good choices early on if you let them!!!!0 -
Yup, we brainwashed our young 'uns that the Golden Arches is poison and my son has loved broccoli since he could chew. I'm sure their friends think they're weird - they grew up not putting sugar on their cereal (and we don't buy the sugary garbage - whole grain products rule) and they both play competitive soccer which keeps them pretty busy all year 'round.
You're absolutely right, teach them from an early age and lead by example.
Having said that, there were some interesting points raised in the movie "Food Inc." around the impact that really cheap fast food has on the dietary habits of many people who are economically disadvantaged which may partially explain why economic status has been linked with obesity (and not just in the USA)
http://epirev.oxfordjournals.org/content/29/1/29.short
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/051104/dq051104b-eng.htm
http://forumonpublicpolicy.com/archivespring08/gearhart.pdf0 -
I totally agree. We do everything we can to protect our kids from going into harms way we are parents that is what we do. But when it comes to how they eat it's like people forget that they are the parent. I did not grow up with a well balanced diet my parents let us eat whatever we wanted. I think that if they would have insisted on eating healthier I would have made better choices. My children are ages: 4, 3, and 1. They eat three well balanced meals a day. My mom tells me that I should not push eating habbits so much they are still to young they can eat sweets and stuff it won't hurt them. I told her I do let them have goodies as I call them but not every day. Maybe 2 or 3 times a week I will give them a goodie but only after they eat thier dinner.0
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Even though I agree 100% with this (as my kids will agree as I'm always on them to do something active) but it's not always completely feasible. My boys are 12 now and you can't shelter them from junk food and video games forever. They have their allowance money and if there's no treats in the house they will go for a bike ride and stop at the convenience store to buy a chocolate bar. I can't keep them totally away from video games as all their friends play them and they do go to their houses. Do I always have fruit, vegetables and other healthy food in the house...absolutely. Have I always instilled in them the importance of good food and lots of activity...yes! They do play 2 sports (hockey and soccer) and they love to bike. And because I'm in Canada and we have 4 or 5 months of, sometimes, very cold weather, kicking them outside is not always an option. After reading all the replies on the topic I now feel like a bad mother but there comes a point when what you've taught them can only go so far.0
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I completely agree with all of you! I don't have kids but I remember always being outside on weekends and on nice days. TV was restricted and we didnt own a game system until the teenage years. Both my brother and I were active in sports, and maintain healthy weights. Only recently, since getting a full time job, have a put on a few pounds. People these days rely too much on other people to teach their kids healthy habits.
My other beef is when parents hide candy or treats from their kids. I grew up in a house were all of this was readily available, but we knew about protion control. By hiding the sweets, this just teaches kids to gorge themselves on these items when they are available. I remember watching kids house a whole family bag of M&Ms ate my house when they were visiting. These same M&Ms sat on our coffee table for probably 2 weeks prior to their visit.
I think we need to look at ourselves before we can blame anyone else. I love this post BTW.0 -
I totally agree my four year old daughter eats all food put in front of her, excepting sprouts. If she doesn't eat, she doesn't eat! It's that simple, there is very little chocolate & no sugar based sweets. She gets milk or water & a rare cup of squash, I am however a separated parent & when she sees her "mum" (for one lousy hour every fortnight) she tends to think it's easier to feed my daughter crap rather than fully engage with her & do an activity with her. This is an ongoing problem that is slowly being resolved by my daughter expressing her views, Healthy Eating = Good Eating
Russ0 -
I completely agree. My parents only let me has candy 1 day a week but it was because candy was bad. We never had junk food, ever. And I was not taught a healthy relationship with food. I'm changing that with my kids.
We don't eat a lot of sweet but they aren't off limits, we just have healthier alternatives available and no junk in the house but we don't restrict it when we are at friend's houses.
I'm a working mom and I cook more meals than I don't, have healthy things in the freezer when I don't want to cook (frozen turkey meatballs especially) and we limit McDonalds to once a week only because our son has to be at church for AWANAs during dinner and it's not physically possible with getting off of work and getting him there with a meal. But I'm trying to teach them to make healthy choices and that certain things only happen at certain times.
My mother's lifestyle choices for me were unsustainable and even she doesn't understand the correlation between exercise and calories and eating what your body needs.
I'm sick of the excuses with kids. If you don't want them to eat junk then don't have junk, if you want them to eat fruit then have fruit in the house, if you want them to not play video games say NO!!!. I agree with the point that parents will do what is easiest and don't want to be parents. I see it daily as a school counselor and I say that parents need to change so that this next generation isn't screwed by OUR laziness!!0 -
I am so glad none of my kids are picky eaters. Sure there are things they like and don't like but they know they have to eat it anyway. I am convinced the reason they aren't picky is simply because they haven't been allowed to be. One of their favorite places to go is the produce place. They love to try new stuff. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's not but generally at least one of the kids will really like it. But my husband and I also have to be a good example by being willing to try new things too. We both hate squash but we are trying to experiment and find new ways to do it. I refuse to let my kids be like adults I know who are known for being picky eaters and just refuse to eat anything remotely different--like if you go out to eat you have to go somewhere with chicken fingers and hamburgers. I tell my 7 yr old she makes me proud because even though she says that she doesn't like any vegetables she eats them every day without complaining. She just knows she's got to do it so she does. And sometimes she asks for seconds.
I know someone who said her son was so picky and just wouldn't eat anything at all but then was surprised when we mentioned putting it on his plate whether he liked it or not. If it's there, eventually they will try it!
Tastes change! My older never liked salad, basically had to drown a piece of lettuce in ranch to choke it down. But then all of a sudden one day she ate 3 big helping at dinner. And now takes it to school for lunch. The difference? She realized she doesn't like ranch dressing. Go figure, lol. Anyway, if you have it available and they don't have the option to eat junk, they will eat the good stuff!
The struggle I have is that we have all girls and we really try our harder to make sure that the emphasis is on healthy eating, not an obsession with calories or anything for that matter. They are always asking if something is healthy. Basically we answer them but we also say it's ok if it's not super healthy all the time. Mac n cheese is really not healthy but it's ok to eat sometimes. Moderation!0 -
My kids used to eat crap. And I fed it to them. I was a single mom and we did quick meals and I didn't know better. When I started changing my life, I changed theirs too. And I told them WHY I was changing it and they complained! Oh my Lord, you would have thought that they were going to die from eating whole wheat bread!!! But guess what - if they get hungry enough, they'll eat anything and that's just what happened. Now it's their way of life. They also don't have video games (I know, I'm a TERRIBLE mom) and are only allowed to watch a half an hour of TV IF they've played outside. It's not only my choice, as a parent, it's my responsibility to make sure they eat right, exercise and generally don't kill each other.0
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I don't get it either!
I am convinced that some parents put their kids on soda drips at night! What bugs me the most is seeing overweight kids being given Energy drinks in their lunch boxes! WTF! :grumble:0 -
My kids used to eat crap. And I fed it to them. I was a single mom and we did quick meals and I didn't know better. When I started changing my life, I changed theirs too. And I told them WHY I was changing it and they complained! Oh my Lord, you would have thought that they were going to die from eating whole wheat bread!!! But guess what - if they get hungry enough, they'll eat anything and that's just what happened. Now it's their way of life. They also don't have video games (I know, I'm a TERRIBLE mom) and are only allowed to watch a half an hour of TV IF they've played outside. It's not only my choice, as a parent, it's my responsibility to make sure they eat right, exercise and generally don't kill each other.
Well done!! :flowerforyou:0
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