Tea, Pepsi, or Chocolate Milk?
What do you allow your children to drink?
For the most part, my boys (almost 4 and 18 months) drink milk and water. Sometimes they drink juice, but only 100% juice, and diluted when I can. As a rare special treat, my older son can have chocolate milk.
I'm finding though that it seems like this is restrictive compared to what other parents allow.
Last week I was in a waiting room with some other moms. I was not allowing Matthew (18 months) to have a sip of my iced coffee. I gave him his water instead. Another mom thought it was Pepsi, and said, "Wow, I can't get my son to drink anything but tea or Pepsi!"
Note that in the South, "tea" means "sweet tea". Basically highly sugared iced tea, for you Northerners.
I was a bit perplexed. Her son is about the same age as Michael (almost 4). She can't GET him to drink anything else? Who's the one who allowed it in the first place?
Later she also commented that her son does not like working on writing his letters because, "he'd rather be watching tv".
I don't know, but it seems to me like the parents are not the ones in control in that house! I think one of the most important words a child can hear is "No". No, you may not have Pepsi. No, you may not watch television all day. No, you may not tease the dog. (My boys hear that one a lot!)
Then today we were out to breakfast. A family was seated next to us. The younger daughter must have been about 3. (She was still in Pull-Ups.) The mom turned to her and said, "Do you want chocolate milk or tea?" Again, "tea" means highly sugared iced tea. For breakfast.
I guess I should not have been surprised when the same little girl grabbed a crayon, stood up on the seat, and proceeded to "color" all over the restaurant window. She had made quite a mess before her parents noticed.
I don't claim to be a perfect parent. I know I have lots of faults. But aren't you just asking for trouble when you start sugaring your kids up and breakfast and then continue it all day long? Could you imagine the wound-up kid who would sit down with a bowl of Fruit Loops and a side of highly sugared iced tea to start their day?
Maybe I'm just lucky. For some crazy reason my boys love fruits and vegetables. Greg and I have laughed on occasion when we've found ourselves saying, "No you may not have any more broccoli until you eat some of your macaroni and cheese!"
But then again, perhaps that's because we've pushed the healthy foods from the beginning, and left the "treats" as just that -- treats.
For the most part, my boys (almost 4 and 18 months) drink milk and water. Sometimes they drink juice, but only 100% juice, and diluted when I can. As a rare special treat, my older son can have chocolate milk.
I'm finding though that it seems like this is restrictive compared to what other parents allow.
Last week I was in a waiting room with some other moms. I was not allowing Matthew (18 months) to have a sip of my iced coffee. I gave him his water instead. Another mom thought it was Pepsi, and said, "Wow, I can't get my son to drink anything but tea or Pepsi!"
Note that in the South, "tea" means "sweet tea". Basically highly sugared iced tea, for you Northerners.
I was a bit perplexed. Her son is about the same age as Michael (almost 4). She can't GET him to drink anything else? Who's the one who allowed it in the first place?
Later she also commented that her son does not like working on writing his letters because, "he'd rather be watching tv".
I don't know, but it seems to me like the parents are not the ones in control in that house! I think one of the most important words a child can hear is "No". No, you may not have Pepsi. No, you may not watch television all day. No, you may not tease the dog. (My boys hear that one a lot!)
Then today we were out to breakfast. A family was seated next to us. The younger daughter must have been about 3. (She was still in Pull-Ups.) The mom turned to her and said, "Do you want chocolate milk or tea?" Again, "tea" means highly sugared iced tea. For breakfast.
I guess I should not have been surprised when the same little girl grabbed a crayon, stood up on the seat, and proceeded to "color" all over the restaurant window. She had made quite a mess before her parents noticed.
I don't claim to be a perfect parent. I know I have lots of faults. But aren't you just asking for trouble when you start sugaring your kids up and breakfast and then continue it all day long? Could you imagine the wound-up kid who would sit down with a bowl of Fruit Loops and a side of highly sugared iced tea to start their day?
Maybe I'm just lucky. For some crazy reason my boys love fruits and vegetables. Greg and I have laughed on occasion when we've found ourselves saying, "No you may not have any more broccoli until you eat some of your macaroni and cheese!"
But then again, perhaps that's because we've pushed the healthy foods from the beginning, and left the "treats" as just that -- treats.
posted by Susan | 11:49 AM
1 Comments:
good points! we only give our children milk, water, and juice mixed with 1/2 and 1/2 with water. Occ. use of choc. milk as a treat. Unfortunately our children love to drink milk, so much that they over do the milk and under do the food.
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