French Kids Eat Everything

OOTforlife

Wed, Feb 18 2015, 2:40 pm

I don't know how it will be with older kids and picky habits, but right now our little family manages to have healthy meals just fine without much fuss even though DH and I both work FT. Healthy eating doesn't require fancy presentation or milking ones own cow.

Like most people, DH and I enjoy the fun or creative activities traditionally associated with SAHMs. Like playing with a child or trying a new recipe. Neither of us enjoys the more repetitive menial activities like scrubbing toilets, cleaning up the kitchen after a new recipe has been tried, or vacuuming. SAHMs who are rich enough to have a choice typically outsource the drudgery and also some of the creative activities if they don't enjoy them. If cheap and effective self cleaning toilets were magically installed worldwide tomorrow, practically no woman would ask for her old toilet back to clean by hand. On the other hand, being able to buy fancy sweaters doesn't eliminate the market for hand knitting. Talking about "homemaking" as if it's all one category is silly.

southernbubby

Wed, Feb 18 2015, 3:07 pm

Barbara wrote:

Zeidy (my father) lives 150 miles away. The other Zeidy is closer. Well, his grave is. Bubby too. Not everyone has family that can wait on them.

Most schools have nut-free policies. That rules out nuts as well as every brand of granola bar that I'm aware of and, in fact, pretty much every packaged snack food other than chips and pretzels.

I was just at CVS and while the snack bars do have nuts, there are pre-packaged plain cheerios, great for snacking as well as little raisin boxes with OU and Triscut crackers that may have less fat and more fiber than chips. Pretzels have less fat than chips. Rice cakes have no nutrition but few calories compared to chips. I don't live close to my children either but when I come to visit, I can get senior deals for them. I just used a bunch of coupons at CVS and I do use those snack bars with nuts for mishaloach manos because I know who I am giving them too.

OOTforlife

Wed, Feb 18 2015, 3:37 pm

With healthy eating and exercise, the perfect too often becomes the enemy of the good. People think that if they can't bake their own bread, go to the gym regularly, and eat fresh organic salads for lunch, then might as well just eat frozen pizza or chicken nuggets every day.

There's plenty of room in between. Kol ha kavod to the Italian SAHM described above, but I have zero interest in devoting that amount of time to homemaking and I'm sure her meals are nicer than the ones at my house. But I am not convinced they're much healthier, if at all.

Raisin

Wed, Feb 18 2015, 5:06 pm

My kids school provides apples, bananas and clementines, and I think bread rolls, milk and yogurt for kids to snack on. (this food is provided by the agriculture board and the EU)

If parents are unable to buy fresh fruit, maybe schools could help out. Or the SAHM PTA members with lots of time as in Fox's school could buy the fruit weekly and collect money from parents to pay for it.

amother

Wed, Feb 18 2015, 5:18 pm

Barbara wrote:

\ judgmental @*&#% like you
you have the middos of a rattlesnake
a nasty judgmental piece of work mother like you.

I clearly made you upset. Sorry. I don't live in the US and didn't know that it's impossible to have one income, as several posters have explained.

The families I referred to, where I said that I feel like the whole household is suffering from the parents choices, are one-income families where the income is the mother's only. The fathers are learning. And the mothers come from frum enough backgrounds that their only obvious career options are lower-paying jobs.

If a husband is trying to support the family, and it doesn't cover despite his best and most out-of-the-box efforts, then a mother needs to work. I'm talking about when the mother is the only source of parnassa based on the parent's values, and they're valuing Limud Ha Torah over basics. I doubt these parents grew up without apples available. But now their kids have to grow up like that, because of their values?

amother

Wed, Feb 18 2015, 8:15 pm

Everyone keeps saying that sahms have all the time in the world to grocery shop and make healthy gourmet meals. I'm home with a baby and a toddler. I'd like to know where all this time to cook and shop are? Grocery shopping with babies can be so hard too. I find that my friends who work often have a babysitter at home who do most of the housework for them, plus they can grocery shop solo and go to the gym on the way home luxuries I don't have.

boysrus

Wed, Feb 18 2015, 11:42 pm

amother wrote:

Thank you for explaining yourself, amother. So I was right, you dont live in the USA.... Finances were so much simpler before I moved here to this land of super high tuition bills and medical insurance expenses...

boysrus

Wed, Feb 18 2015, 11:51 pm

amother wrote:

I hear you, been there done that...

So now imagine having a baby and toddler and going out to work. Coming home with baby and toddler becasue they are in daycare at your place of work, and no cleaning help. So some people REALLY have no time to do anything!

Lets face it, life is hard. wE all have our own challenges, we can all vent to each other and all do our best to calm each other down and do our best to feed our families healthily. Healthy doesnt have to be time consuming btw. Teach your kids to eat apples whole, buy ready peeled baby carrots, ready checked lettuce and broccoli etc (no cheap but thats a different discussion altogether). I rarely make salads unless it is lettuce from a bag. Oherwise I wash baby cucumbers and let them eat them whole, whole grape tomatoes unless they are too young and will choke on them. But yes, I wish I had more time to make my own bread, own cookies wiht healthier ingredients, no high fructose corn syrup or vegetable shortening etc.
Healthy suppers do not have to be gourmet or need a lot of preparation time. I cook simply with hardly any preparation time. my most consuming things to make are vegetable soups that take time to chop all the veggies.
Quick supper ideas:
wholewheat noodles and cheese,,, cheese omelettes, broiled tilapia, baked salmon (for both of these, just rinse fish and sprinkle wiht spices and cook), chicken with spices. Dont make shnitzel, it takes much longer. dont make meatballs, its much quicker to make meatsauce instead. you get the idea.
good luck to you. you are doing your best.

saw50st8

Thu, Feb 19 2015, 10:53 am

amother wrote:

I was home with a 3 year old, a 20 months old and a newborn. There's a lot more time to cook healthy when you are home. Have five minute? Chop celery. 30 minutes later you have another few minutes? Slice cucumbers. As for grocery shopping - my kids loved to get out of the house. We have wagons that accommodate 2 kids plus I wore the newborn. Also, most little kids go to bed fairly early, so you can pre-prep the next days food.

I'm now working full time - I'm up at 4:30, make dinner, leave to work at 5:45, come home at 5:30 with the (hungry) kids, serve dinner, do homework, bath, bedtime. Right now my kids are 7, 5, 3 and 1. Some things are harder being home, but time to cut some fresh fruits and vegetables or grocery shop isn't usually one of them (at least for me - all situations are obviously different).