Smart Parents Love Their Veggies

Loads of things make me crazy: comb-overs on bald men, useless (often pantless) starlets getting publicity, overpaid professional athletes and faux-cooks/-cookbook writers who give you recipes to disguise vegetables for kids.

Hell, no. This is just not right. Trust is elemental. No tricking them into anything.

More to the point: Vegetables are delicious.

Discard the old wives' tales and prejudices about what kids will or will not eat. Just because you may not like something or weren't exposed to it doesn't mean that your kid won't like it, or shouldn't be given the opportunity to be a hater. Period.

Your kids are entitled to their likes and dislikes just as you are, but -- trust me on this one -- you just need to keep trying. Offer food neutrally. Keep offering it. No games or gimmicks or disguises. In our family, one child who would steal broccoli off her sister's plate, which was a good redistribution of food, because her sister hated the stuff. The broccoli hater had a thing for peppers and would come home from school and beg for roasted peppers in garlic and olive oil on whole wheat baguettes for a snack.

One daughter even had a thing for arugula and Bibb lettuce. Desperately homesick at summer camp, she compiled a crafty plea for early release. Topping her list of injustices? The camp served only iceberg lettuce.

We recently witnessed a gaggle of three-year-olds exposed to Brussels sprouts for the first time. They received no parental cues about what their response should be. And what did most of them do? Wolfed down the whole plate and asked for seconds.

Rosalyn Hoffman is the author of the just released NAL/Penguin book, Smart Mama, Smart Money: Raising Happy Healthy Kids Without Breaking the Bank.

 

 

 

Follow Rosalyn Hoffman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/SmartMoneyMama

Comments

[ginadeoliveira2008]

05:08 PM on 04/01/2012

I was raised with a (now called) mediterranean diet, my grandmother was a superb cook. Never less than three vegetables per meal, everything sautee of course. As a result, confort food for me are vegetables. It's that simple. Just make it savory and fresh, children learn to love what they're raised eating.

[Megan Engels]

07:51 PM on 03/30/2012

Not just veggies either I just discovered my two year old LOVES MUSSELS of all things.

[dougalcandy]

01:36 PM on 03/30/2012

I have had veggies every way imaginable. I have made them every way imaginable. I eat them because they're healthy and I should. I will never love them, will never crave them, will never think of them as anything but something I have to eat. We eat healthy meals in our house, and I try to make veggies creatively, my other family members eat them, and I mostly choke them down. Has always been that way with me. I really do wish I could like them more!

[plantbasedpunk]

11:24 AM on 03/30/2012

So true. I think a big part of the problem is so many people don't know how to or don't bother to prepare vegetables in a way that does them any justice. Put some effort into it! Don't just zap a can of green beans in the microwave and call it a day. Try using fresh and a variety of herbs, spices, vinegars, citrus fruits, oils. Try steamed, roasted, grilled and sauteed.

[Fromageball]

01:40 PM on 03/30/2012

So true! I grew up with parents who didn't like a lot of vegetables and I assumed that a lot of veggies like brussels sprouts were automatically icky but now that I'm an adult and have had several years to learn to cook for myself, I find that there are very few vegetables I actually don't like. Roasted Brussels sprouts are a favorite now.