DrLynn’s BodyBlog

I was pushing my cart through the grocery store discussing birthday plans with my 5 year old.  He was excited because we were planning the menu for his celebration dinner.  Each year my children get to choose what they want and I prepare it for them.  He decided he wanted sushi so we went to the seafood section to pick up some salmon, crab and tuna.  I turned to him and asked him about dessert.  It told him I could make a big cake, baby cupcakes, cookies, an apple crisp or a chocolate torte.  He shook his head at each of my suggestions and I was stumped. "Well, what do you want?" I asked.  Without hesitation, he darted around the corner then returned a second later with two cellophane packages, one in each hand.  He held them out in front of him defiantly.  "I want Twinkies!"  We stood there, eyes locked and I swear I could hear the showdown music from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly in the background.  "You said I could pick my dinner AND dessert" he said. I reminded him that he had never even tasted Twinkies before, told him that they were artificial tasting and not really fit for human consumption.  I explained, once again, the difference between a good made-from-scratch treat and mass manufactured junk from the store, all to no avail.

In the end I relented.  Not because he said "Please Great Mommy" twenty times (believe me, I can hold the line with the best of them) but because ultimately, I don’t think it’s productive to create absolute taboos on any kind of food.  He wanted Twinkies so badly, because he had never had them.  In my opinion, good nutrition is about balance and consistency over the long haul and creating categories of totally off limit foods for my children only serves to increase the likelihood that they will make poor choices when I am not present to police their food intake.  I serve tasty, well balanced, home cooked meals and I pack the same quality things in their lunches each and every day so a Twinkie on a very special occasion isn’t a make it or break it issue at my house.

After our sushi dinner that night, I stuck six candles in the darn thing and we all sang "Happy Birthday".  The delight on my son’s face was priceless.  What was even better, however, was the ensuing dramatic display the boys put on.  They ate their desserts then fell onto the floor and started rolling around telling me that they could feel the hydrogenated oil clogging up their arteries, that they felt ill, that the high fructose corn syrup was making them dizzy and that they probably weren’t going to make the night.  It was hilarious!  We all got a great laugh out of it…and although Twinkies will never darken my doorstep again, they really did add a little joy to one special night in October.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 9:28 am and is filed under Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.