You let your kids eat what??

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!

Same, I ate what my mother made and if I didn't want it, too bad. I went into whole foods the other day and almost fainted at how much everything was. I could buy everything off the value menu at taco bell for the price of like 1 avocado. Not saying I actually would do that obviously..

I commented earlier, but thought I'd add more. I have a different situation in that my fiance's daughter just moved in with him this past summer after living her first 7 years with her mom. She moved in with us because her previous home was not a good environment for many reasons and there was legal stuff involved. ANYWAY - she was raised on a diet of microwaveable food, McDonald's, treats whenever, all processed food. I'm extremely surprised she does as well with us as she does and usually eats what I fix. I try to be fair and not make her eat things I KNOW she does not like (so far, it's just tomato soup), so if I want to make tomato soup for my fiance and I, I'll make her an alternative because I'm knowingly fixing something she doesn't like.

That being said - she's a sugar addict. She loves junk food and loves sweet snacks and we're trying to switch her over to a healthy style of eating as much as we can, but it's difficult when that's how she's been raised. When my fiance and I have children together, it will be a completely different story. I (hopefully) will breastfeed exclusively until they reach the point they can have solids, and then look into what a previous poster did and do baby-led weaning. From then on, they will have a completely different diet growing up - minimal processed things, sweets, etc. I want to hopefully raise them on homecooked meals and as much whole food and healthy habits as I can so that they grow with that and keep those habits into adulthood.

I make different meals most nights, one for my husband then something for the kids & then my own. Sometimes we all eat the same but it's very rare. It's not ideal but we all eat reasonably healthily & kids pallettes & food preferences change as they get older so it does get easier. My 15yr old son will now eat food he wouldn't dream of touching when he was younger but my 10yr old daughter is going through a "picky" stage, neither of them are anywhere near being overweight. Just keep healthy yourself & it will get better.

I am shocked by what some parents let their kids eat. Is it any wonder it's not just adults that are overweight (In the US this problem is pretty epidemic of you ask me) but is it any wonder that so many kids are overweight too?

I know so many people that started their kids on soda at very young ages. Where McDonald's and other fast food places are daily if not weekly staples in their diets ... and their kids diets. Cookies, cakes, candies, chips, all the time.

I think for some parents it's just easier to give in and appease the kid instead of holding firm and actually being ... the parent.

my 2 cents.

i do not have kids, but it can be pretty wild when you see what some kids eat. i don't think kids should be eating mcdonalds, or any fast food for that matter, more than once a month. when it becomes something that is fed to them like 3-4x a week, it's kind of disturbing. i remember this one time i was at a mcd's, and this clearly overweight little girl (poor thing), who had already eaten her meal, was given money to go order more chicken nuggets. it made me sick! but at the end of the day, it's the parents that are feeding this stuff to them. it's messed up!

i now really understand the importance of getting kids to eat healthy at a very young age. the longer a kid eats unhealthy, the harder it will be to change it. i didn't like all vegetables when i was a kid, but i liked some, and i did not eat mcdonalds 3-4x a week. childhood obesity is a huge problem.