0 comment Tuesday, May 6, 2014 | admin
I'm shoveling crap down my children's throats, thought you should know. Not literally, mind. What I mean is that I'm feeding my children those highly packaged, shockingly expensive lunchbox food assimilation stuffs.
I'm lucky in that my children like fruit and vegetables and so they get plenty of fresh, nutritious stuff. The problem comes with carbohydrates and protein. They like this, then they don't. They like that then they don't. They like this just what the other one doesn't like at any given moment, but then they won't eat that when they loved it last week.
I used to bend over backwards to give them what they liked, until I realised that they didn't know what they liked, they just liked to be in charge of what went on their plate. Even if they then didn't eat it.
We now have a policy of you'll have what you're given and they are not allowed to make any comment about the food they have to me unless it's a compliment. Anything less than that is not polite, I tell them. This has reduced my irritation levels, but it hasn't made them eat much more.
And they need to eat, get the calories in, because they are small for their ages. Both are the smallest child in their year. My Daughter who is 10 years old and two forms higher than her brother, is smaller than him. Nutrition is important, but they need their calories to grow. They love their puddings and chocolate, but there is definitely a tipping point, where too much of the sugary stuff and their appetite for normal food goes.
And also they need to keep their blood sugar levels up. I am convinced that not eating enough at school during the day contributes to Son's after school moodiness in particular.
And so I'm buying crap like Dairylea Dunkers, Kraft food lunchables and Nestle's Munch Bunch yogurt drinks, and I'm shovelling it at 'em in their school lunchboxes and at weekends. I'm not giving them a chance to settle on a favourite which they can then reject, I'm just getting loads of that type of crap and giving it to them randomly.
It's painful to do because I'm a free-from-cruelty, organic, free trade type purchaser myself, and it's expensive, and the packaging is very bad for the environment, but the thing is the kids are actually eating more. They're getting the carbs and the salts and the calories they need to get through the day, as they are actually eating this stuff because they see them as treats rather than obligatory food stuffs their parents make them eat.
At this stage, I'm willing to give anything a go. Anyway, in my school lunch box I used to have jam sandwiches and a Wagon Wheel and I survived into adulthood.
AddendumHusband went to do the lunchboxes last night and discovered that for lunch on Friday Daughter had opened all the food packets but eaten nothing. The mind boggles. Today she will find a note in her lunchbox saying that she is not to open anything unless she intends to eat it, because we cannot waste such expensive food. I do hope that note doesn't embarrass her in front of her friends.
I'm lucky in that my children like fruit and vegetables and so they get plenty of fresh, nutritious stuff. The problem comes with carbohydrates and protein. They like this, then they don't. They like that then they don't. They like this just what the other one doesn't like at any given moment, but then they won't eat that when they loved it last week.
I used to bend over backwards to give them what they liked, until I realised that they didn't know what they liked, they just liked to be in charge of what went on their plate. Even if they then didn't eat it.
We now have a policy of you'll have what you're given and they are not allowed to make any comment about the food they have to me unless it's a compliment. Anything less than that is not polite, I tell them. This has reduced my irritation levels, but it hasn't made them eat much more.
And they need to eat, get the calories in, because they are small for their ages. Both are the smallest child in their year. My Daughter who is 10 years old and two forms higher than her brother, is smaller than him. Nutrition is important, but they need their calories to grow. They love their puddings and chocolate, but there is definitely a tipping point, where too much of the sugary stuff and their appetite for normal food goes.
And also they need to keep their blood sugar levels up. I am convinced that not eating enough at school during the day contributes to Son's after school moodiness in particular.
And so I'm buying crap like Dairylea Dunkers, Kraft food lunchables and Nestle's Munch Bunch yogurt drinks, and I'm shovelling it at 'em in their school lunchboxes and at weekends. I'm not giving them a chance to settle on a favourite which they can then reject, I'm just getting loads of that type of crap and giving it to them randomly.
It's painful to do because I'm a free-from-cruelty, organic, free trade type purchaser myself, and it's expensive, and the packaging is very bad for the environment, but the thing is the kids are actually eating more. They're getting the carbs and the salts and the calories they need to get through the day, as they are actually eating this stuff because they see them as treats rather than obligatory food stuffs their parents make them eat.
At this stage, I'm willing to give anything a go. Anyway, in my school lunch box I used to have jam sandwiches and a Wagon Wheel and I survived into adulthood.
AddendumHusband went to do the lunchboxes last night and discovered that for lunch on Friday Daughter had opened all the food packets but eaten nothing. The mind boggles. Today she will find a note in her lunchbox saying that she is not to open anything unless she intends to eat it, because we cannot waste such expensive food. I do hope that note doesn't embarrass her in front of her friends.
Labels: Food