Feeding the Kids
Are you a parent and know all too well the meaning of "hAngry tantrum" (as in "hungry and angry")?
Are your kids ready to "eat you alive" if you don't provide them with a snack as soon as you pick them up from school.
Does your parent instinct tell you that you should feed the kids "healthy" but the realities of every day life make it easier said than done?
I feel you my friend. The number of times I have been there with my 3 boys and wished that someone handed me some answers ...
The thing about kids
These little humans have so much going on in their lives these days. They have to wake up everyday and go to school where they are expected to sit still, concentrate, learn, play - all the while being pleasant and polite with their peers and adults for hours on end. Then they come home and they have to deal with homework, piano lessons, tennis, dance class , karate - you name it. Its exhausting. Yet, at the weekend, how many of them have time to simply ... get bored? The modern world we live in, with all its blessings, comes with many many stressors and challenges that we all, including our kids, need to adapt to.
The problem is that our modern food environment does not always contribute in the best way to a day that demands a hefty load of energy and mental clarity. The kids feel this first hand. Ask the teachers, how many in the class just cannot sit still before the 10am bell when they can get out their (usually sweet) snack. How many are jittery before lunch or can't wait until the end-of-school bell. I take my hat off to those teachers, who somehow still manage to get knowledge into our kids heads.
It's a thing these days - kids with ADHD, anxiety, depression, all kinds of food allergies/intolerances, obesity ... Somehow this was not the case 3-4 decades ago - at least not to the extent we experience today.
There is no question that our environment is changing too fast for our biology.
Atomic habits
While we cannot control the rate of technological progress or external stressors, the good news is that there are certain things which we do have direct control over. The low hanging fruit (no pun intended!) is that we do have control how we feed our families. Even if we can't afford to buy every single thing organic, even if we don't have time to spend all day in the kitchen - we can always make choices that can affect our families' health and mood for the better.
The way our kids start the day, what they put in their lunch bag, the food habits and reflexes they adopt today, the example we set - all have a direct and powerful impact on their lives, both today and as they grow to become adults. Imagine a child that learns to start their day with a savoury, protein rich breakfast - they will not only have better mood and mental clarity as they sit in class today, avoiding the perpetual blood sugar rollercoaster that many of their peers are on - but they will grow into an adult for whom starting a day like this is a normal part of life. This one little, seemingly unimportant habit will have unbelievable exponential effects over the course of their lifetime. Such tiny, or as the author James Clear calls them, "atomic" habits are incredibly powerful.
We, as parents, have this short window of opportunity to exercise direct control the habits our kids will adopt.