I am, in fact, a short order cook
One of the most loaded issues in family life is, does everyone sit down together at the table and eat the same thing or not? Are you a failure as a parent if you don’t? Seems everybody has an opinion on this, including the so-called “experts,” both in terms of child development and healthy eating.
In this week’s blog “I Am, In Fact, a Short-Order Cook” I will explain how my own attempt to rigidly adhere to a Norman Rockwell ideal was one of the reasons I found myself miserably unhappy and fat. My cooking and my eating devolved over the years into a pattern of eating I call “eating to the lowest common denominator.” It was deeply dissatisfying and ultimately I had to reject it in favor of a modified “short-order” cooking style, which makes everyone in my family happy. Most importantly, me.
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Turns out family satisfaction has less to do with fulfilling somebody else’s idea of what you “should” do and more to do with ensuring that your kids know that you value and love them. Huh, who knew?!
My kids eat a pretty standard American diet, but they still don’t eat (much) junk because it simply does not come in my house. When a kid comes home from school at my house his choices might be a huge bowl of strawberries, apples, or string cheese, but not mini pizza rolls or even crackers. It’s so much easier for everyone to be healthy if the only choices to be made are from healthy options.
Check out this week’s blog “I Am, In Fact, a Short-Order Cook” and let me know what works for your family in the comments!
Marilyn