Eating Habits

I’ve been told on occasion that I can be my own worst enemy. I think that can be said of all of us at one time or another, especially when it comes to our children’s eating habits. We as parents often become our own worst enemy in the debate over “what to serve for dinner”. Have you found yourself making two meals for dinner - one for the adults and one for the kids?
Too often we feed our children something other than what we as adults are eating; either because the child has turned there nose up at what’s being served, or we’re afraid they’ll object and we just don’t want a scene at the dinner table. On those rare instances as a child, and I say that tongue in cheek, when I decided I didn’t like what was being served for dinner, never mind that I hadn’t even tried it yet, my parents’ response was that if I got hungry enough, I would eat it. And nine times out of ten that was exactly right. Yes, children have their own individual tastes just as we adults do, but they should be required to at least try a new food item. This is how my son is raising his children and it seems to be working out pretty well. In fact, more often than not that picky eater pucker on my grandchild’s face quickly turns into a sheepish “hey, that actually tastes pretty good” grin.