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> The foods she offered the children were varied, but all were generally thought to be healthy. Their intrinsic goodness meant that it would have been difficult
by bscphil 4y ago
> The foods she offered the children were varied, but all were generally thought to be healthy. Their intrinsic goodness meant that it would have been difficult for her small charges to veer too far from the nutritional straight-and-narrow.
In other words, give people the illusion of choice, and they're more willing to accept your limitations. I don't see any evidence here that children (or anyone) have some kind of special insight into their own bodies' "nutritional needs" - to the extent such things are even individualized - but rather, that most people will eat a balanced diet when given the choice. E.g. none of the children became vitamin deficient because none of them chose to eat entirely one kind of food.
- taeric 4y agoAgreed. It doesn't even have to be a ton of choices. Often, give kids the choice of "this is dinner, eat it or you can wait til breakfast if you aren't hungry" is surprisingly effective. And doesn't have to be a fight.
- jay_kyburz 4y agoBut I feel mean when I'm eating my ice cream and they are crying over in the corner.
- taeric 4y agoHa! Yeah, you do have to not be a jerk to the kids. Such that they still learn more from imitation than they do lectures or dictation. If you want them to see that "skipping dinner to have a snack" is not the norm, you have to not do it. Which, to bring it back to this thread, I find it very unlikely that unlimited access is at all a universal good idea. Might have worked on 2 of our kids. Would fail dramatically on 1 of them, though. Similarly, anyone that says that just give their pets unlimited access to food, is lucky to not have one that would just binge forever.
- eropple 4y ago> Similarly, anyone that says that just give their pets unlimited access to food, is lucky to not have one that would just binge forever. I didn't know until I had one that a lot of huskies will actually only eat when they're hungry. It's usually nice, because I can just leave the food down and she'll eat when she wants. It's not so nice when I'm dog-sitting and she doesn't eat promptly, so the other dogs usually raid her bowl.
- taeric 4y agoYeah. It is the mixing of behavior that gets really tough to deal with.
- conductr 4y agoIt’s like humans have evolved where children begs for easy calories. Adults feel guilty for depriving them, especially while consuming said calories. I wonder if bird parents feel guilty for digesting their chick’s supper.