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Do you short order cook for your kids?

Posted on Oct 5th 2007 12:20PM by Bev Sklar

Filed Under: Healthy Kids, Diet & Weight Loss, Nutrition & Supplements

Kids these days, especially teenagers, often have varying dietary desires. Mary Elson's thought-provoking Chicago Tribune article about a la carte family dinners shows impromptu burgers on the grill do not work anymore with many teens.

Take Mary's recent experience. On a whim, her son and two friends came over for dinner after skateboarding. Her husband had been preparing hamburgers on the grill. Suddenly, mom was staring at three boys with markedly different dietary preferences. Her semi-vegetarian son (eats fish), a lacto-vegetarian friend (no meat/fish/eggs) and a third buddy from Istanbul who adores American cuisine.

This simple dinner metamorphosed into hamburgers, tilapia burgers and pasta with marinara. Interestingly, Mary claims soda is also out of style, so her family serves milk, herbal teas, vitamin waters (the mid-calorie beverage rage) and other healthy drinks. Cool trend.

I've always taken Dr. Phil's advice and do not short order cook for my kids. But they are still little. Sounds like I may need to have pasta, salad and fish on hand once the teen years arrive. What's your take?

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Tags: a la carte, ALaCarte, American cuisine, AmericanCuisine, Dr. Phil, Dr.Phil, family dinners, FamilyDinners, lacto-vegetarian, Mary Elson, MaryElson, semi-vegetarian, short order cook, ShortOrderCook, teenage dietary habits, TeenageDietaryHabits, The Chicago Tribune, TheChicagoTribune

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Dan 10-05-2007 @ 1:17PM

I love to short order cook for my kids! We make breakfast for dinner once a week and I let them have their eggs any style (fried, over easy, omeletes, pancakes) and they have to help by chopping or grating their mixings. With six kids, it gets to be a little like the Greek Cafe on the old SNL (chee-boor-gah)...

Make it fun, make it family! I think it is better to let them have some choice and eat a good meal, than to force them to eat whatever whims me...

Liz 10-05-2007 @ 2:48PM

My stepson is 4 and he has been coming to stay with us every few weeks since he was 2. I always give him 2 or 3 healthy options for dinner, depending on what we have around the house. He is still too young to like a lot of the things we eat.

We have a rule that he has to try one bite of whatever we are having for dinner. He doesn't have to like it, but that way he expands his palate beyond his comfort zone. He has discovered that tofu lasanga, whole wheat pasta, and chicken tempura are delicious. We usually reward his bravery with a piece of sugar free Jello, a nighttime walk around the block, or staying up a little later.

vanham68 10-05-2007 @ 3:24PM

I'm sorry, I must be extremely old-fashioned. I was raised and am raising my teenage son to eat what was put before you. I let my son make sugggestions and because I'm diabetic, we pretty much follow a diabetic diet. But if he wants something totally different, he can wait til the next night and then cook it himself if he wants. That's not being mean, it's teaching him how to shop and cook, since he usually cooks 1-2 nights a week.

monica 10-05-2007 @ 3:34PM

I think it's different when they are little and cannot, safely, cook for themselves. If there is a dietary allergy then yeah... you might need to adjust the family meal. I would NOT EVER though, cook a 4 yr old chicken nuggets as an extra because he/she is turning their nose up at regular family meal. That kind of catering to I DO NOT agree with.

When kids get older and start making dietary changes for themselves (eg: vegetarian) then they are also old enough to start cooking/preparing their own meals as well. I became a vegetarian at age 12 and my Mom helped me research what was healthy and good and things that could be made easily. I would then prepare a main entree to eat with the rest of the family meal along with the other side dishes. Sometimes I would even take the initiative to make the entire family meal and make it totally vegetarian. (eg: vegetarian lasagna, or something else that everyone would like)

My point? When teens are old enough to make dietary preferences/restrictions, they are old enough to make their own meals. While it might not be good to just basically say, "you're on your own now, then if you don't want to eat cows." I think doing what my Mom did, and helping them at first, and researching with them proper diet/healthful ways to go about their lifestyle is best for everyone. :)

Missicat 12-04-2007 @ 4:55PM

Guess I am old-fashioned also - when I was growing up, we had two choices. Take it or leave it. I ate what was put in front of me and when I got older and ate at friend's homes, I did the same thing. Wouldn't you be a little embarassed if you child when to a friend's home to eat and he or she demanded that something special be prepared?

patsy 10-05-2007 @ 5:14PM

My kids got to pick a dinner as young as five. They helped cook the dinner and got something they like. Most nights they ate whatever I made and that went for their friends too. I got calls from other mothers asking how I got their kids to eat broccoli or brussel sprouts etc. We just had a rule one taste.