Be A Team: Healthful Eating – Video Blog Ep 3

Saturday night Matt and I went out to dinner, on a date.  We chose a local grass-fed burger joint.  To our left, mom and dad were giving their kids PB&J from home with canned mandarin oranges.  To our right, a 6 year-old was being rude, screaming at her dad to relinquish the chocolate milk shake in order for her to have it prior to eating her meal. Eventually, he let her have it. Matt and I sat, baffled. It was really, really sad to watch. Kids not eating burgers?! Our boys would’ve been digging into lettuce wrapped burgers without coming up for air!

Matt and I have always had the rule that we eat as a family.  Even before Paleo, what we served was what there was for dinner.  That’s it, no alternatives.  We try everything in front of us, at least one bite. You never know if your taste buds may have changed! Not to mention, it would really hurt Daddy’s feelings if he spent a long time cooking us a meal and we didn’t even try a bite. We don’t force finishing dinner or how much anyone should or shouldn’t eat, but if there’s room for a treat after dinner then a significant portion of proteins and vegetables must also have been eaten.

As parents, we think it’s our job to raise our children the best way we know how.  We conquer those battles one day at a time until one day we’re able to look back and say, “Hey, we won the war!” Right now that means educating our boys and leading by example.  We are a team, after all. And as a team we all have the same rules.  Even the parents.  Our rules are:

  1. Be Respectful
  2. Be Polite
  3. Don’t be Wasteful

It’s amazing how those little rules apply to so many different aspects of parenting.  My kids have learned to turn water off when brushing their teeth, to always find a bin instead of the ground for their trash, to say please and thank you and to appreciate what they’ve been given (“you get what you get, and you don’t get upset”) with these rules.

I wish I could have everyone live by these rules; how much better would the world be if we all followed them?  I worry about that 6 year-old girl growing up to think she can just shriek, yell and be rude her whole life with an end result of getting what she wants. I know plenty of obnoxious adults who I can imagine were raised this way.

I hope that you can all get on board, together as a team, to define your own family rules and think of ways to improve how your family eats.  That said, here is the latest in our installment of video blogs (thanks Matt, for learning how to edit videos for us!).  In this Episode 3, Cole, Finian and I discuss ways to get your kids excited about eating more healthful choices.  Watch with your child and discuss what your idea of healthy foods are. I hope it helps to inspire the next step in your family’s Paleo journey.

Paleo Parents Video Blog Episode 3 from Paleo Parents on Vimeo.

p.s. We’ve tried to make this funny and entertaining so that your entire family can giggle and enjoy – have patience with our complete lack of video editing skills, we hope to achieve Pop-Up Video quality in future episodes!

p.s.s. Cole’s informed us that he will no longer do any video blogs because he doesn’t like his voice, should you feel inspired to give some positive feedback (comment, he’s not on Twitter) on the impact he might be making it would be ever so appreciated.

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