Parenting’s no longer fun: bringing up bébé to be picky AND tiresome

Aug 9, 2012 by

Research has revealed that American moms find being around their own children twice as disagreeable as French mothers do.

We Americans would rather do housework than tend our own little darlings, according to Pamela Druckerman in her recent Wall Street Journal article “Why French Parents are Superior.”

We parents would do well to remember that how we feel dealing with our kids is probably about how other people will feel dealing with them, just without our maternal or paternal affection.

To rub more salt in the misery, being self-sacrificially wretched for the sake of our children is no guarantee things are going right. Rather, probably the opposite.

Out of control while over-controlled

Marlena’s kids screamed like banshees, unchallenged, for what they wanted. They also snacked, unrestricted, on junk food all day long. But when it came time for dinner, Mom hovered, micro managed and pressured them over every bite, while they resisted.

“Two bites…

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The “Anna Karenina Principle”: Six Steps to Avoid Picky Eating and Achieve a “Happy Family”

Aug 2, 2012 by

“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”  

—  the opening lines of Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy

Broad is the way that leads to unhappiness in a family; the ways to go wrong are limitless. No question about that. If Tolstoy is right, there’s also only one narrow path, a certain set of basic foundational requirements, to achieve a happy family. What if we apply this principle to family meals?

Jared Diamond in his book Guns, Germs and Steel…

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Free San Antonio Workshop for Parents of Picky Eaters: How to Shepherd Your Child’s Appetite

Jul 28, 2012 by

Thursday, Aug. 23, 2012
7– 9 p.m.
at La Altura Pediatrics, Dominion Hills Plaza 21195 IH-10 West, Suite 2101  San Antonio, Texas 78257

Are meals a battle?
Having trouble getting kids to eat at the table?
Have you become a short order cook?
Do you make two different meals for one family?

Through this interactive workshop, you will:

  • Identify which tools you are using to try to make kids eat that actually make things worse, and get equipped with the right tools — the ones that work!
  • Find out how to cultivate the right atmosphere and habits in your home so children both eat happily AND behave.
  • Discover how to do less to accomplish more.
  • Learn how to leverage children’s natural appetites to motivate them to want to eat what YOU…
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The World’s Simplest Solution to Picky Eating: Freedom Within Limits

Jun 26, 2012 by

The other day a man was telling me how one of his kids had been a picky eater.

As I always do, I asked him what he did about it.

“We’d sit there with him and tell him he had to eat certain amounts of the various things on the table. We’d sit there and insist until he did it,” he told me.

A typical strategy, I thought. And a counter-productive one.

Then he added, with a note of curiosity: “We noticed, though, that if we actually left the room for awhile he would eat.”

I wasn’t surprised by those results. Just another proof of the Push-Pull Principle.

Nobody likes to be pressured and forced to eat something they don’t want to eat….

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