Do You Make Your Kids Clean Their Plates?
My grandfather was a child during the Great Depression. When he is presented with a plate of food he eats it all, right down to sopping up juices with a piece of bread if necessary. That’s just the way he was brought up; you don’t waste the food given to you because nothing should be wasted. As a child he didn’t know if he would get another plate of food anytime soon, so he learned to eat what was given to him. Obesity wasn’t an issue back then.
As the years passed and new generations came along he didn’t lose this habit. He also passed it along to everyone else in the family. I don’t know if he did it on purpose, but when we all sat down to eat we would clean our plates. While I understand not wanting to waste food, I really think that the expectation to clean our plates prohibited us from learning how to listen to our body’s cues and figuring out when we were actually full.
Old Habits Die Hard
I still find myself doing this nowadays. My husband and I love to go to a restaurant down the road that serves these huge burritos, and when I say “huge” I mean that if I paid attention to the actual serving it would probably turn out to be enough for three people. When I eat those burritos I don’t think about being full; I eat until the burrito until it’s gone.
I’m trying to break this pattern with my kids. I present reasonable servings to the kids and never force them to clean their plates. If they aren’t hungry they don’t have to eat. If they don’t like the look of the veggies on their plate, they aren’t forced to eat them. Believe me, this wasn’t an easy tactic to adopt. I was afraid the kids would wind up eating nothing but cheese, or that they would become malnourished waifs. Guess what? My kids are healthy and thriving. They listen to their bodies and they stop eating when they are satisfied, and I never push them to eat more.
When I look at pictures of me when I was my daughter’s age I can see the difference. When I was her age I already qualified as chubby. My daughter, on the other hand, is a healthy weight. I think the relaxed attitude toward food -coupled with the fact that I don’t allow my kids to lounge in front of the TV for hours on end- helps a lot. I just don’t want my kids to have to struggle with their weight and I think allowing them to listen to their bodies is one way to help them.
Brian Sharland says...
I like your idea and how it should work in encouraging kids to only eat what they want – however my one concern would be food waste itself. If you have an efficient means of composting or putting food in a slops bin for collection that would be good.
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Tamsen Butler says...
Brian, I agree with you that we shouldn’t waste food. We’re big on putting food in the fridge and eating it later, so if the kids don’t want something it usually becomes my lunch for the next day.
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Pete says...
Hi, Tamsen Butler… We are exactly the same when it comes to leftovers. That makes me bigger and bigger actually because I don’t want food to be wasted in the trashcan. I have this thought that there are so many people in the world not being able to get the right food they need so why waste it, right?
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