Too Many Treats?

I think I buy my son too many treats.

By treats I mean cupcakes, milkshakes, icecreams, Slushies, baby chinos and so on.

It's not that he gets a treat every time we go out but he often does and sometimes that adds up to a treat most days of the week.

Up until recently I didn't think it mattered much. Wild Man is super active and at no risk of being overweight. He eats veggies really well and I'm sure he is getting all the nutrients he needs.

So my only concern was that he was being spoilt, and I thought that as long as he accepted it when I did say no we were ok.
 Kids these days seem to be bought so many more things then we were. Certainly my children get more treats then I did. But they are also more often in places where treats are available.

I stop to buy myself a coffee, buy bread from a bakery not a supermarket, meet friends at cafes, Wild Man's swim school offers the kids a snake at the end of the lesson (I HATE THIS - do we really need to reward them for exercise??) and the end result is that my children are exposed to treats many, many times each week.

Even if I only got them a treat half of those times, that is still an awful lot of 'sometimes foods'.

Lately there has been so much in the media about the dangers of sugar and it has really got me thinking about the habits I am teaching my children.

Their weight isn't an issue now, but perhaps it will be in the future. They eat lots of good food now, but perhaps they won't when they move out of home and if I have unwittingly taught them that you buy a treat every time you go to the shops, that habit will still be there.

So I've started saying no.

It is more work for me - the occassional meltdown, having to pack more healthy food from home and so on - but for the most part it has been an easy enough transition and Wild Man has been really accepting, suprisingly so. Which leads me to suspect that perhaps the person buying the cupcake is enjoying the experience just as much, or possibly more, as the eater.

I don't want my kids to grow up thinking that every time you stop for petrol you should also buy an icecream or a drink or a sausage roll. And I think that the self control needs to start with me right now.

How often do you buy your kids treats? And how do they react when you say 'no'?

Strollers, childhood obesity and Mummy guilt

A couple of months ago my aunt gave me an article that said that children spend too much time being pushed in the stroller, especially older children.

Apparently we are subconsciously teaching our kids that you sit down to get around, and it is all because our lives are too busy and we are rushing, and our kids will all end up fat and dead of diabetes or heart conditions by the time they are 20.  OK, that's an exageration but I'm sure you can imagine the tone of the article.

Now I'm not trying to down-play the terrible thing that is childhood obesity and all the related health risks but do mothers really need one more thing to feel guilty about? I swear we are doing our best.

I was furious and indignant when I first read the article, and I still resent the implied criticism of all the Mums out there but, four months on, it has definitely changed my behaviour.

I have a double pram for Princess and Wild Man and we do spend a reasonable amount of time walking around our local area (normally to the local cafes for some much needed caffeine at about 6am). 

I used to feel really positive about pushing them around - they were getting fresh air, Vitamin D, not watching the TV, quality time together, experiencing the natural world blah blah blah (you see what I mean about mother guilt) but after I read the article I became consious of the fact that Wild Man was definitely capable of walking at least some of the time and the only reason he didn't was that I was in the habit of pushing him (and I was in a rush to get coffee).

No more! It only took a couple of gentle suggestions from me and he was enthusiastically running along the footpath, exploring people's front gardens, patting local dogs and generally having a wonderful time.

This brave new world is not without its drawbacks - walks take twice as long, Wild Man can be difficult to control, I keep having to pretend to be a dog out for a walk with its owner (complete with stick in my mouth) and I am terrified of cars reversing out of driveways and into my little boy - but for the most part it is fantastic and I love watching him enjoy this new sense of freedom.

So even though I resented the article I'm really glad I read it. And in the end my sense of guilt had a really positive effect.

How much time do your kids spend walking compared to in the stroller? And do you have trouble with them running off?