“Mom, may I please have some salad?”
This is what I heard this morning. Jonny wanted salad for breakfast. Here’s why, leading to a point…
Last night I did end up having that salad I wrote about. It was quite late and my son was still up (my fault, I’m confused by the sun setting at 9:30). He loves to higrate the cucumbers and avocado from my salad. I thought it would be fun to climb in bed for a salad picnic with him. Why not? Life is supposed to be fun. So there we were being cozy and having a salad in bed right before lights out. He was happily picking out all of my cucumbers, tomatoes, and olives this time. He ate around the mustard greens. This special and different time shared made him really happy and imprinted on him a positive experience. He was still beaming from that this morning and wanted to repeat it. He told me to make a salad and listed off: “greens, olives, cucumber, and tomatoes”. As a special surprise I added his two favorites: mushrooms and avocado. We snuggled on the couch (the other forbidden food zone) and ate out of the bowl together. Again, he avoided the mustard greens, but joyfully ate everything else.
I really like living like this. We have a lot of rules, which are obviously important, but sometimes it’s so fun and crucial to just let down our guard and have fun; be silly.
But that’s not the point of this story.
I want to share about something much more important: listening to our children. For the purpose of this blog, I’m referring to the context of food and nutrition. This will be the first of many posts on this topic.
I truly believe that our bodies are infinitely wise and divine. I believe this, and in my journey Home to my Self, I am learning to listen to my body and be still for a moment. I mentioned this in a previous post. So, if I believe that our bodies are wise, doesn’t this apply to children also? They have bodies. Why is it then that we so urgently impose onto our children an adult diet, so to speak? Why do we force them to sit and eat 3 meals a day? Why can’t they fast if they want to for a day? Because we believe we are doing the right thing. We care about our children and we are carrying forward what we have learned about nutrition from our parents. We are doing what we know.
But what if they were wrong? What if we truly listened to our children’s dietary needs from a relaxed, open standpoint? What would that look like? Would they eat only candy? Would they never drink water? Would they eat salad for breakfast?
I cannot count how many times I hear from mothers, “I wish my child wouldn’t eat so much sugar!” This is just one example of a phrase I hear regarding food and kids. I have to respond that our children are eating what we give them. That’s the truth. If we don’t have sugar around and we model healthy habits (in bed under the covers with a flashlight and a big bowl of sliced bananas and cherries – hey, that sounds fun!), then our children will follow suit. That’s what they do.
Here is my mission and my commitment: My intention is to lovingly remind and encourage mothers and fathers to take back the power of their children’s health and nutrition. To empower us all to nourish our families being guided by our deepest knowing of what our spirit is telling us is right. To educate ourselves about nutrition and take responsibility for it.
This is too important to not worry about. Look around you at the youth of today. Children are obese everywhere we look and malnourished. Children have adult-onset diseases. Read that again: adult-onset diseases.
I am not saying that a paradigm shift in our kitchen is easy, but what I am saying is that it’s worth it. There are a bazillion resources on the internet to give support along the way. We always say that it takes a village to raise a child. I always say that it takes a village to raise a parent.
More to come on this with some fun stories of what we do with Jonny.
Have a beautiful day!
Shawna