Our kids are in the negotiation phase of life. If we want them to do things, it will happen, but usually it comes with some benefit to them – they usually end up on top.
They will clean up their room … for a treat, they will clear the table … for a bath, and of course they will eat their vegetables … for dessert. It’s a classic, but in our house, it gets the job done.
But if you think about it, very few things in life are done without some kind of incentive.
We work because we want money, we brush our teeth to prevent cavities and keep our friends, and we eat our vegetables, honestly, because as adults, we learn we have to. I didn’t wake up one day and just think I love vegetables! It’s more of an acquired taste I have grown to accept, because eventually you have to learn to like things that are good for you. No, they will never taste as good as an Oreo.
Why can’t they just grow vegetables that taste like chocolate, so my mouth is convinced that’s what I’m really eating?
Maybe if we sprinkle cocoa on the soil? I might just have the million dollar idea.
Until that time, what is the trick to getting your kids to eat their vegetables?
Eat your vegetables. The more they see you eating stuff you should, the more likely they are to follow suit. I don’t hide my vegetables in other food items. And I literally don’t sugar coat it for them – if you eat only sugar, you will have serious health problems. Yes, you can have a snack, but eat real food – not sugar. Usually my 5-year-old goes down the list. Is a cookie real food? No, try again. Is a peppermint patty real food? No, keep going. Is yogurt real food? Yes, there you go.
I don’t think it’s genetics, or completely coincidental, that my father-in-law doesn’t eat tomatoes, so my husband doesn’t eat tomatoes, so now my boys don’t want tomatoes. Poor tomatoes … they are such outcasts in my house. Don’t worry, I still like you.
I give my kids the cold, hard facts. Eat your vegetables if you want to be healthy, grow strong, and get taller. Not working? Oh, and eat your vegetables if you ever want another cookie in your life.
The other evening, as we were finishing up dinner, trying to get the boys to eat the forsaken vegetables still on their plates, I tried to coax them, “Just eat them, they are good.”
That wasn’t working. “You will not eat anything else tonight unless you eat them first.”
This got my 5-year-old to shove a sweet potato in his mouth and then say, “All I have left is my ascareagus.”
Asacareagus – no wonder nobody wants to eat it – sounds dreadful.
But he shoved all the green stalks in his mouth without any more fuss. Then he gave me a big smile. He knew I had a plate of strawberries waiting in the kitchen, and a new box of Popsicles in the freezer.
In our house, it’s all about getting that sweet reward. But I have to be honest, I’m the same way. I eat my vegetables, because I should, but I spend time on the treadmill, so I can have that cupcake and eat it too.
And I figure the more we all eat our ascareagus, the less frightening it will actually be.
