Obesity-proofing our children 173 and low everything diets. They were not at all interested in Mum’ s cooking – they reacted to her freshly baked brownies as if they were the work of the devil. This not only left Lynne feeling rejected, but much worse, she felt unable to express her heartfelt love for her children. She felt rejected- and then guess who ate all the freshly baked brownies to make herself feel loved? Parents have different languages of love that they speak with their children and their partners. There are five languages of love:
• Expressing feelings of love and affection verbally
• Open hearted, intimate discussions
• Touching – in all its forms, e. g., hugs, kisses
• Acts of service – expressing love by doing things for the other person
• Giving of gifts For couples, the importance of understanding these different languages of love is that people speak in their own language to their partner and often fail to realize that they are not being understood because their partner grew up with a different language. This causes a lot of frustration and wasted energy in relationships as couples put effort into loving their partner in a way that makes sense to them, but is largely meaningless to, or goes unnoticed by, their partner. For parents the problem is with the last two – acts of service and giving of gifts. If the act of service is cooking, or the gifts are special foods, we could be setting our children up for a weight problem. A more practical problem is that providing our children with healthy food takes time shopping and time in the kitchen. I would argue that obesity-proofing our children is worth the effort. If there is one timeconsuming exercise that we have been saving up time for with all of our modern time saving devices( e. g., microwaves, fast-boil kettles and remote controls) it must be preparing healthy meals. And this is not just a job for mothers. On days both parents work, both should be in the kitchen. On days neither parent works – such as weekends – both should be in the kitchen. If you are going to eat out then spend the extra money and go to a better café or restaurant that