mama’s plate

There are few things in this world more irresistible to a toddler than the food on mama’s plate. It doesn’t matter what you’ve prepared for your child, and how delicious it may be. In fact, most of the time, we’re wishing we could eat what’s on our kid’s plate instead of what’s on our own. Goldfish? Yes, please! I’ll take that golden cheddar-y goodness ANY day over the crunch of baby carrots.

Sigh. Let me tell you a story.

Right before this pandemic arrived, I started a healthier eating plan. Yes, you read that right; I’m trying to eat more healthy foods during the apocalypse. I even joked with my husband that I should have known the world would come to an end if I actually began losing weight on a consistent basis. The devil is determined to keep me miserable! Here I am, trapped in my house with all of my husband’s and daughter’s carb-happy snacks. Times like these make you want to look up into the heavens and say, “Are you kidding me?!?”

Sigh.

Nevertheless, I have persisted. I have resisted. I am still going strong. Yes, I may want to cry whenever I see someone getting a pizza delivery, but I have not caved and ordered one for myself.

A couple of nights ago, I cooked some chicken nuggets and broccoli for my child (one of her favorite meals), and she began to eat while I made myself a big spinach salad with shredded chicken, Laughing Cow Light Swiss, and my homemade balsamic vinaigrette. This meal has become one of my favorite go-to’s for something quick and healthy.

Well, I’m sure my mama friends know exactly what happened as soon as I sat down at the table with my big salad bowl. Yep, my child immediately became more interested in what I was eating, than in her own food.

Now, I’ve tried to give Grace a raw spinach leaf from my plate couple of times in the past, but she has simply spit it back out. She’s eaten soft butter lettuce without rejection, but only in very small amounts. Her 2-year molars are still coming in, so for safety’s sake, I wanted to give her enough time to grow the teeth she needs for raw veggies and not rush things.

Keeping all this in mind but not wanting to deny her a chance to try something healthy (again), I decided to try giving her the long stem from the spinach leaf instead, since that part stays crunchy and might be easier for her to chew. And wouldn’t you know it–she ate it up and told me she liked it! Soon she was pointing at the cheese and the chicken as well, and all of a sudden, my salad became her salad.

Aside from learning that I’d need to make a bigger salad (for two) from now on, I realized that when people say your children are watching you and mimicking you, they aren’t kidding. It’s not just some cutesy, fun cliche; these kids actually want to be just like us. So if we’re eating crap, they’re going to eat crap too.

If, however, we make the choice to fuel our bodies with good nutrition, our children will want to do the same. No, they won’t understand they’re making healthy choices until quite some time from toddlerhood; for now, they’ll just want to eat what’s on our plates. But one day, they will understand the difference between healthy and unhealthy choices. And if we’ve done right by them, by the time they do, the healthy habits will already be in place, and their taste buds will be well-acquainted with these better choices.

Being a parent is a heavy, but joyful burden. Everything we do is molding our kids into the person they’ll become. It’s a huge responsibility, not to be taken lightly.

There’s certainly a happy medium we all need to find between eating tree bark, and eating slop.

So in the middle of this virus situation, while we’re all cooped up with our families, let’s make sure to model good choices for our kids as best we can. If you have access to healthy foods, make the better choices whenever possible. In doing so, we’re equipping our family’s bodies and immune systems with the good nutrition we all need to help fight off these germs and keep us out of the hospital.

Blessings,
Emily