Yesterday in our wellness practice, I had an interesting conversation with a great mom about McDonalds and other fast food restaurants. She, by the way, has been doing an amazing job over the last few years to lead her entire family to a much healthier lifestyle. Anyway, during the course of the conversation it came up that my kids have never been to McDonalds or any other fast food restaurant. She didn’t believe me. Couldn’t believe me! She joked that we must be 1 of 10 families on the entire planet who have never taken their kids to Mickey D’s. I laughed, but thought it was very sad at the same time.
Another mom who overheard our conversation said that I should have a seminar and/or write a book specifically teaching parents how to NOT take their kids there – what they could say to their kids to make them understand, what they could eat instead, how to break the habit, etc. Parents are also very concerned about childhood obesity and want to know how they can prevent it, or correct it.
I had to leave the office to drop my daughter off at dance class. While there, the owner of the studio asked me to come and give a seminar for all the parents and dancers on her competitive dance teams. Apparently, those girls are there for so many hours day in and day out, and they eat junk and fast food on their breaks. The owner, the instructors, the parents and even the dancers are all looking for nutrition guidance to help them achieve higher performance levels and optimal health – they know they’re on the wrong track right now.
Funny, the owner of the gymnastics training facility in our town asked me the exact same thing about her top level performers a couple months ago. Apparently, anyone who's interested in performing their best knows they need to clean up their nutrition.
Do our kids need to be in competitive sports for us to want them to perform their best? Of course not!
A critical point to make here is that I see no pedestal under my feet when I talk about this… I am not a “better” mother because I’ve never taken the kids to fast food joints. I’m not really sure how to effectively explain it – it’s such a non-issue for my husband and I. We just don’t go there. Not an option. Our kids are very clear on this... "we don't go there". As for now, it's simple in our family.
Personally, I never say never! I’m sure someday we’ll end up in one of those places for some reason or other. No big deal. We’ll find whatever their healthiest options are and go from there. I figure that the longer I can keep them away from fast food (and a long list of other 'bad' things in life), the more time I'll have to teach them how to be responsible enough to make healthy choices even when I'm not there. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!
What you won’t see, unless I suffer a serious head injury, is our family stopping there with any regularity or frequency. There's just not enough "health" on the menu. I suppose exception #2 would be if they start serving organic meats and fresh, preferably organic, vegetables! Do we have our vices? Heck yes! My husband and I LOVE Mexican food. We go through spells where we’ll visit our favorite little spot a few times in a few months, then we take a break… do a little cleansing! If we ate like that all the time, it would be impossible to achieve a state of health.
Anyhow, my daughter had no clue that a place called McDonalds even existed until she started school. That alone makes we want to homeschool! Her entire first year of school, she thought McDonalds was a toy store because of all the little toys her classmates would bring in from their visits there. One of her friends gave the entire class $5 gift cards for Christmas last year and she wanted to go shopping for a toy there. Mysteriously, that gift card ended up in the recycling bin!
This year in school, her friends have ‘clued her in’ that McDonalds and Burger King are actually restaurants that serve “good food”. So, of course, now I’m the bad mom because “everyone else gets to go there” and her friends think she eats weird food (you know, those weird carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, yogurt, chicken, soup...!) Man, I thought I had a couple more years before I’d be hearing that!
We drove by Burger King after dance class and the stories about how ‘her friends all say that their parents say it’s OK to go there' started all over again. In sheer frustration, I pulled the car over and turned around to explain to her that countless parents are actually pleading with her mom and dad to teach them what we know. They want their kids to stop eating at these places. "You're so lucky to have parents who know about Nutrition and Health", I heard myself say! She just rolled her eyes at me! I turned around and cracked up inside my head! It'll be a long journey with this kid... she's either gong to finally 'get it' one of these days, or she'll be hanging out a McDonalds everyday after school from the time she's 7, just to spite me!
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