The Importance of Not Wasting

We’ve had our seven year old grandson as a houseguest for the last week, and it has been both a pleasure and a toil, for him and us. It’s been a long time since either my husband or I had to rush around in the mornings to get a child ready for school. We’d both forgotten how “off track” a youngster can get when they’re supposed to be getting dressed, getting teeth brushed and school books collected. The other thing that has surprised us is the amount of food waste that can go on with our grandson. Generally his eyes are bigger than his stomach, and nearly half of what he takes to eat remains on his plate. Of course this was a call to action for both my husband and myself to attempt to retrain our little darlin’ on the merits of not wasting food. No, we didn’t tell him he had to eat everything on his plate, whether he was full or not. What we have done is to tell him to take smaller portions first time around. If after that you are still hungry, then take a little bit more. We also told him that to waste the amount of food as he had been doing was akin to taking his weekly allowance and throwing it in the trash. That got his attention. This is of course an age old problem, but teaching children not to waste food or resources should be an essential element of their education, at home and at school.