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Peace with kids at mealtime!![](https://www.dvo.com/newsletter/monthly/2000/may/may_pics/broc.gif)
May
The Force NOT Be With You--
By: Desiri Wightman, RD, CD
Have you had any mealtime battles around your dinner table lately?
You know the kind. You want Sarah to eat her carrots and she wails and
whines and mopes and eventually throws them on the floor. You spend
your entire meal battling with her, and while you eat your cold food,
you wonder why researchers think family mealtime is such a good thing.
After all, the only person you are conversing with is Sarah, and not
in the friendliest of tones either.
Often power struggles over mealtime stem from the parent doing too much
work! Yep, you read that right. You're taking on too much responsibility,
and it's time to share the load. In the eating arena, both the parent
and the child have individual responsibilities, and when the parent
or child tries to do the other's work, toes get stepped on, making mealtime
anything less than pleasant.
Parents Decide What; Children Decide How Much!
The parents' job is to be the gatekeeper. They decide what food will
come into the home and to the table. They are responsible to know the
basics of nutrition and what foods are manageable for children to eat.
They also prepare and present the meal in a positive way. They regulate
meal and snack times. They make mealtimes pleasant by setting limits
and ensuring that behavior is polite. To summarize, parents' main mealtime
job is to put food on the table and to monitor the environment.
Children are responsible for deciding whether they will eat the food
and how much they will eat. That's it! This is the line that many parents
cross. Have you recently told your child, "You can't leave the table
until you take 3 more bites!"? The battle begins for you've just sailed
into the FORCE.
The FORCE is never where you want to be. Mealtime battles ensue as your
"eat- everything-on-your-plate battleship" strikes your child's "ship
of autonomy." She fires back at you, telling you to move out of her
territory so she can prove that she is capable of making good food decisions
from the wonderful assortment you provide. Remember, you do have the
upper hand in that you get to decide what nutritious foods to offer.
Scrap your battleship and let your child explore the delightful world
of food within the bounds you've set. Following is a list of ten tips
to help you sail smoothly away from the FORCE:
Click here to continue...
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Storing
Leftovers
Unclutter your cupboards by using your empty Mason or mayonnaise jars
to store leftovers. When you open your refrigerator you'll see exactly
what needs to be eaten and thus prevent the growth of green fuzzies.
Better yet, unlike plastic containers, food odors won't linger around
the jars. And the final plus, jars are always dishwasher safe and will
come out sparkling and sanitized for another use!
* DVO welcomes your kitchen hints and cooking or nutrition questions!
Email us and we'll post your hints
and Q/A's in upcoming newsletters! *
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Chicken
Broccoli Cheese Braid
Try this recipe as another way to get your 5-a-day. Even friends who
don't like broccoli ate double portions of this delightful meal. Serve
with oven baked potato chips, veggie sticks and dip, or a potato salad
for a complete meal.
![](https://www.dvo.com/newsletter/monthly/2000/may/may_pics/one_braid.JPG)
Chicken
Broccoli Cheese Braid
* Do you have any fabulous recipes to share with other Cook'n readers?
Email your recipes to us. Include
any preparation or serving hints and/or tell us about you and your family.
*
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$$ Today's
Stock Market Report $$![](https://www.dvo.com/Pics/money.gif)
Helium was up, feathers were down.
Paper was stationary. Fluorescent tubing was dimmed in light trading.
Knives were up sharply. Cows steered into a bull market. Pencils lost
a few points. Hiking equipment was trailing. Elevators rose, while escalators
continued their slow decline. Weights were up in heavy trading. Light
switches were off. Mining equipment hit rock bottom. Diapers remained
unchanged. Shipping lines stayed at an even keel.The market for raisins
dried up. Coca-Cola fizzled. Caterpillar stock inched up a bit. Sun
peaked at midday. Balloon prices were inflated. Scott Tissue touched
a new bottom, and batteries exploded in an attempt to recharge the market.
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The
easiest camping trip ever!![](https://www.dvo.com/newsletter/monthly/2000/may/may_pics/camp.gif)
In February, my husband came home from work and told me, "We're going
camping!" I stared blankly at him and then outside at the drizzling
rain. He quickly suggested that we turn off all the lights, eat our
meal on paper plates and by candlelight, and set up the tent in the
living room. Excitedly, we did just that.
We used flashlights and candlelight to light our apartment, and even
turned the heat down to simulate the outdoors. Our toddler reveled in
jumping through the tent door onto our bed of sleeping bags, foam, and
pillows. We sang campfire songs and read stories to our ecstatic child.
While playing Yatzhee and eating popcorn, the die came up missing. Our
son's cheeks, overflowing with "popcorn" soon gave way to a run of 4
slobbery dice. As you can imagine, the memory of that night will be
with me forever. Best of all, we didn't have walk to an outhouse in
the middle of the night or serve burnt "fire" pancakes in the morning!
And with no dust or pine needles trekked into the tent, clean up was
a breeze. I didn't even get one mosquito bite!
So, this summer, when bad weather threatens to rain you out of a family
camping trip, don't despair, and don't pack! Instead, go on the easiest
camping trip ever, right inside your living room.
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Win
a digital camera!
An
Agfa ePhoto 780 digital camera is patiently waiting to snap the pictures
of one clever family, and your family could become its focus!
The family that submits the best idea for an activity in our Family-Fun
Times Contest, will be snapping digital pictures of their camping, boating,
or lazy summer days and sending them via email to friends and family
around the globe.
The last day to submit entries is June 15, 2000, so start brainstorming
with your family tonight and share your cleverness with others. All
great ideas will be posted in next month's newsletter, so that other
families can make this summer unforgettable too! (If you need to jump-start
your brain, read the Family Fun-Times section above
for ideas.)
We'll narrow the entries to the three most creative and choose a grand
prize winner to receive the digital camera, a 1st runner-up to receive
Cook'n 2000, and a 2nd runner-up to receive a set of recipe cards. (All
prizes can be exchanged for their value in money, if desired.)
Click here to submit your idea and write
your activity in the text message box.
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Get
weekly recipes and kitchen tips
* Interested in more handy kitchen tips, recipes, and jokes? We'll
gladly send you fresh ideas for food and laughter once a week in our
Cook'n Weekly newsletter. Click here
to sign up for your free subscription.
* Do you have any family or friends who might be interested in receiving this free monthly newsletter? Click here to tell them about it!
* A special thank you to all 65,213 of you who have signed our
petition for a family-safe internet.
Our petition asks the eight major search engines to allow us our freedom
NOT to view links to pornographic web sites if we so choose, enabling
families to create a safe internet-viewing experience.
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Copyright
© 2007 DVO Enterprises, Inc.
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