Here is what is bothering me (today): the “Kid delicious, Mom nutritious!”-type advertising. I understand what they’re trying to communicate: your kids will like it better than carrot sticks, and you will like it better than Pop-Tarts (for them, I mean; for yourself, you’d want the Pop-Tarts). But doesn’t it make “Mom” sound like a big old stick-in-the-mud, a sourpuss card-carrying member of the Nutrition Police? “Hey, we know you usually want your kids to eat tasteless nutritious crap, but here’s something yummy that even YOU will let them eat, you heartless old nag! For the love of pete, give the kid a break now and then, will ya?”

Personally, I groan just a much as the kids do about things like eating vegetables. I try to set a good example, and that good example is that I eat things that are good for me even though I don’t like them, not that I go around like MY mom did, saying, “Mmm-MM! These carrots are so sweet, they’re just like CANDY!”

I don’t think it does a kid any favors to hear that fruits and vegetables are more delicious than a Burger King TenderCrisp Spicy chicken sandwich with a large side of fries. This was the message at my house growing up, and the conclusions I drew were (1) that my mom was nuts and didn’t know what the heck she was talking about, and (2) that if people were supposed to find fruits and vegetables more delicious than junk, then something was wrong with me. It would have worked better on me for her to say that we can’t always eat the things our tastebuds lead us to, and that a person can learn to also like the nutritious foods they have to eat most of the time. I can go for that point of view: grapes and apples ARE yummy, as long as no one is trying to tell me they’re “dessert.” Carrot sticks CAN be satisfying, as long as no one is saying they’re a good substitute for chips.