Here’s a few things you can start doing right away:
1. Eat together as a family for as many meals as possible. Whether it’s a home cooked breakfast, takeout eaten around the dinner table or a meal together at a restaurant, sitting down together makes a big difference. Talk, laugh and enjoy each other’s company. Show your kids that eating is a social experience and memories are made around the table.
2. Make mealtime distraction-free. Keep the TV off and phones and tablets tucked away. It’s imperative that the adults follow these rules, too – your email can wait 30 minutes! Screens are distracting and cause people to eat mindlessly, often missing their own hunger and satiety cues. Similarly, do not allow eating in the car, stroller or while walking around. Meals do not have to be long, but they do deserve a dedicated chunk of time, usually between 15-45 minutes per meal.
3. Pass down family recipes, or start new traditions. Food is culture, it is celebration, it is love. Show your kids by teaching them the family recipes or instituting new traditions of your own. This is especially critical for sweet treats. Instead of daily indulgences straight from a grocery store package, baking together occasionally teaches kids that sweets are special and rare.
4. Use food-positive language. Actions may speak louder than words, but when it comes to food and health, remember that your kids are listening. Never refer to a food as “bad” or “cheating,” or discuss its impact on weight or health. Instead, talk about how delicious things are, and the importance of eating a wide variety of different foods. Compliment your cooking and teach your kids to describe foods kindly using descriptive words like “bitter” or “salty” instead of “gross” or “yucky.”
5. Do not talk about dieting! Please, please do not introduce your children to toxic diet culture. If you are personally trying to become healthier, take the whole family with you by cooking more and buying better products. Any “diet” that isn’t safe for your kids likely isn’t safe for you either! If the kids notice that you’re making
changes to the menu, explain that you want to start serving a wider variety of great tasting foods for the whole family, not that mom is on a diet because she’s fat.
We know that children learn so much about human relationships through what they see modeled in the home. But when it comes to food, parents often resort to telling kids what to do instead of showing them. By making a conscious effort to model a good relationship with food, our kids will effortlessly adopt the same behaviors, and likely maintain them for life.