After all these years, I am finding more and more that my mom always knew best. I can remember the years of misery and anguish found in school lunches and grocery shopping on weekends. 100% juice boxes only, all natural string cheese, a piece of fruit, peanut butter and jelly sandwich made only with low sugar jam, Adams peanut butter (the kind you had to stir after buying) and 12 grain bread. On a very special day, I might find a fig newton or two. My mom mastered the South Beach Diet before it was invented. I used to dream of Capri Suns, fruit roll ups (the kind with cut outs), lunchables, and Kudos snack bars. Sadly, these things were never found in the Van Son household. In third grade, I began to protest these gross healthy lunches by not eating anything she packed for me. I would leave the uneaten food in my backpack for days. After discovering the "dead lunches", my mom concluded that if I wasn't going to eat the lunch she so lovingly packed for me, I could go ahead and make it myself. Not exactly the outcome I was hoping for.
Many years later, as I have become more nutrition conscious, I am grateful for the natural food selection of school days past. As an adult, I don't have a palette for processed sugars and food. I try to shop as fresh as possible, compare bulk food to packaged, and consider all information and ingredients on the nutrition label.
Lately, this gratitude has gone one step further. Since I live in the ghetto of Austin, I typically grocery shop anywhere but near home. Our local shop is not my ideal destination, it is overcrowded, messy, and lacks selection. Mostly it exposes me to parents who are buying terrible food for their kids. Soda, white bread, bologna, Velveeta cheese slices, Cheetos, donuts, bright red fruit punch of some kind, the list goes on and on. I know these foods are less expensive, but with some thought and planning a healthier diet is still possible on a budget. What's worse, the kids look unhealthy to me.
Seeing the other end of the spectrum has really helped me realize the importance of instilling healthy eating habits at a young age. When the time comes, I will be packing lunches for my kids that are very similar to the ones once made for me. And when the munchkins complain (which I'm sure they will), I will take heart and hope that in 16 years time, they come to the same realization and appreciation that I have.
3 comments:
Yes this is so true! My husband's mom was the opposite and never made her kids eat any vegatables because SHE didn't like them! After he married me I started slipping fresh veggies on his sandwiches and in his meals, and he loves them now! It's important to us to raise our kids eating healthy food too, I think you are right - one day they will thank us!
I had this exact conversation with my mom last week! Jill and I were talking about how we felt so deprived at the time and had dreams of Capri Suns, just like you. I can now appreciate the reasoning behind the lunches that I found so boring and healthy, although I never want another Fig Newton as long as I live!
Hahaha, missy, that just goes to show you: listen to your parents! Your mom and I often said to each other: wait till she's grown or has kids of her own...there's a little Schadenfreude (look it up)here, haha -
On a more serious note: I do need to talk to you soon about you-know-what, and it isn't about Capri Suns or other junk foods, but about you-know-darned-well: the IRS! So either you call me, or I'll get in touch with you -
Love, your Dad
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