http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/million-meals/201212/the-dessert-problem
Not too long ago, dessert after a meal was seen
as a treat or a reward for finishing everything on your plate. Today however,
many people, especially parents, are facing the “dessert problem” of deciding
how much is too much. Many children feel that they are entitled to dessert
after their meal. Although when there is a pint of ice cream or a whole
chocolate cake in front of you, it is hard to know when to stop.
Desserts have always been seen as a treat and not
a substitute for a real meal. However, to children, dessert is much more
glorified than regular food. It is because desserts are not always the best for
you. Like the article says, “ what children love to eat most is not what they
need to eat most of”.
Nowadays with an obesity rate at an all time high,
maybe the ‘sugar high’ is to blame. To deal with this dilemma, some parents
eliminate sugar and sweets from the house all together. Other parents want to
avoid a conflict with their children so they let them have as much as they
want.
Ultimately, parents need to teach their children
to have self-control and not over eat on the sweets. What do you think? Should
desserts and sweets be removed from the house all together? Should families try
and find a common balance between foods that are “good” for you and foods that
are not so good for you?
On a related note, this article made me think of
the Jimmy Kimmel skit “I Told My Kids I Ate All Their Halloween Candy”. In this
funny video, parents told their kids that they ate all of the Halloween candy
that they worked so hard to get. You can clearly see the two different types of
children. There are the kids who feel that they are entitled to their candy and
when they learn their parents ate it, they are devastated. On the other hand,
there are the few children who say, “It’s okay Mommy...As long as you are happy”.
I would be curious to know which type of households these children grew up in.
Were they rewarded with desserts or did their parents not let them ever eat
dessert?
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YQpbzQ6gzs
This article is a really interesting idea because I grew up in a household that never had dessert unless it was a special occasion. I don't agree with the author that banishing dessert necessarily creates a "forbidden fruit" scenario. We just never really thought about it growing up. It may be one of those things where we were too young in the beginning to know that other families had dessert more often so by the time we got older we just didn't care. The Jimmy Kimmel skit is really funny though and some of those kids totally freak out like the world was ending! I just think that's crazy. Candy/Dessert should never become that important to a child. Parents really need to limit the amount of sugar a child has access too. I think by doing that, and teaching their children that dessert can only be special if you save it for special occasions, that children would be in a much better place.
ReplyDeleteFamilies should find a balance between healthy and unhealthy food, with the emphasis on healthy food. I have a lot of experience with kids (years of babysitting), and in all honesty, no dessert is a very successful threat; the kid obviously won't be harmed by not eating dessert, and if they don't stop misbehaving, they'll be missing out on something that isn't healthy for them anyway. By saying this, I do not support parents giving their children dessert just so they can threaten them with taking it away--that's manipulative.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Katie. It seems ridiculous to ban dessert all together, along with any unhealthy foods, but there should be a balance. Dessert should be a treat, not a necessity, which it has become today. Overeating on dessert type foods is extremely bad for one's health, and due to this overeating, there are a myriad of health problems, from diabetes to long term heart diseases. The Jimmy Kimmel video was hilarious, however, somewhat cruel. Interesting enough is the concept of "mine" that these toddlers demonstrate. Most of the children yell "It's my candy! That's not fair!" If this selfishness is controlling our youth now, I can't imagine what the future generation will be like.
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