Food: Parenting or Homemaking?

Welcome to the July Carnival of Natural Parenting: Let’s talk about food

This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama. This month our participants have written about their struggles and successes with healthy eating. Please read to the end to find a list of links to the other carnival participants.

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When I was thinking about what I wanted to write about for this month’s Carnival of Natural Parenting, I had a list of food-related issues, an article titled ‘avoid these foods while breastfeeding‘ with a list of said foods, stories about food and our family, and my journey into vegetarianism. But I had a hard time relating all that to parenting, which is the focus of this blog. To me, parenting was affection and discipline and emotions and activities and learning. Food was lumped into the “homemaking” category.

But the more I thought about it, the more I realized how wrong I was.

Feeding our children is one of the most important jobs a parent has – it is the first form of nurturance and the longest lasting. Even adult children going back home to visit their parents experience the nurturance of lovingly prepared food.

Food is an important aspect of parenting in lots of ways:

• Healthy food builds healthy bodies and brains, which builds a strong, stable foundation on which to lay the bricks of discipline, good habits, social skills and education. Poor nutrition, especially a diet full of highly processed foods that contain artificial flavours and colours, leads quickly to poor behaviour.
• Eating together helps teach children about self-control, sharing and how to delay gratification.
• Regular family mealtimes demonstrate that family time together is important, and shared conversation over dinner is an excellent way to strengthen relationships, share the experiences of the day and build children’s vocabularies as they listen to adults speaking with each other.
• Growing and preparing foods is an opportunity to teach children where their food comes from and gives them a chance to practice valuable skills in menu planning and cooking. How many kids leave home without knowing how to prepare anything but mac & cheese out of a box?

I know I am guilty of devaluing the work of “homemaking” in my own life. I tend to put off cleaning, make dinner at the last minute, lose important things (like the flashlight!) in the just-slightly-too-disorganized drawers and cupboards of my house. Recognizing the value of healthy, well-planned meals, tidy spaces and “a place for everything” takes back the considerable power of the homemaker’s role. I want that power back, and I want to have a clean, comfortable house in which to raise my kids. I want to have the time, energy, motivation and skill to prepare healthy meals. I’m working on this by sampling my way through the recipes in my new favourite cookbook, Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. Next up on my reading list is Radical Homemakers.

Recognizing the importance of food as a parenting resource is a good first step for me. I feel positive about many of the choices we have already made in our family around food and mealtimes: we eat together every day, we’re vegetarian, we eat a lot of whole, real foods and we rarely eat out. The changes I’d like to make around food are mainly focused on reducing the toxins in the food we eat, such as eliminating foods packaged in cans and increasing the percentage of organic foods in our diet.  I also want to make our housekeeping more efficient so that cooking and cleaning get done without taking too much time away from the other things we want to do.

Food is a essential aspect of parenting and homemaking, and it raises up the two together like the baking soda in a muffin dough.  Good food makes parenting easier, and good homemaking makes it easier to put good food on the table.  Now, let’s eat!

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Visit Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama to find out how you can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting!

Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants:

(This list will be updated July 13 with all the carnival links.)

• Welcome to Two — All About Food — In case you hadn’t heard, there is a conspiracy afoot from the two year olds of the world. Shana at Tales of Minor Interest stumbled onto their newsletter!
• Four Seasons of Eating Locally — Jenn at Monkey Butt Junction has pointers for what fresh produce can be found year-round. (@MBJunction)
• Happy Families Can Have More Than One Diet — Deb Chitwood at Living Montessori Now has figured out a way for her family to live happily as vegans and vegetarians with relatives who eat meat. (@DebChitwood)
• My Own Omnivore’s Dilemma — Seonaid at The Practical Dilettante prioritizes responsible consumer choices for her family.
• No Gluten — No Cry — Joni Rae at Tales of a Kitchen Witch Momma learned to cook balanced meals when her son’s food sensitivities prompted a diet overhaul. (@kitchenwitch)
• Try, Try Again — Stefanie at very very fine has become an enthusiastic consumer of locally grown food.
• CSA — Week 1 — Casey at What Love Is wants her children to know where their food comes from, so she joined a friendly CSA. (@CBerbs)
• Food: Parenting or Homemaking? — Michelle at The Parent Vortex sees food as part of a parent’s nurturing role. (@TheParentVortex)
• 5 Tips to Help Kids Develop Healthy Eating Habits — If you struggle with healthy eating, helping your child develop healthy habits might be a challenge. Dionna at Code Name: Mama shares five easy tips that will help your kids learn to make good food choices. (@CodeNameMama)
• Family Food: Seeking Balance Between Healthy, Sustainable & Affordable — Kristin at Intrepid Murmurings has a whole list of ideas for how she can improve her family’s eating, both now and into the future. (@sunfrog)
• Whole Foods in, Wholesome Feelings Out — Jessica at This is Worthwhile has turned her back on the processed, preservative-ridden food of her childhood. (@tisworthwhile)
• When to Splurge on Organic (and When It Is Okay to Skip It) — Becoming Mamas tell you what foods to prioritize when buying pricier organic food, and where you can find it cheaper. (@becomingmamas)
• A Locavore’s Family Meal — Acacia at Be Present Mama tells a story in pictures of her family taking a trip to the local organic farmers market and then preparing a summer meal together with their bounty.
• Eat Your Food, or Else — Why should we not bribe a child to eat? TwinToddlersDad from Littlestomaks (Science Driven Real Life Toddler Nutrition) explains. (@TwinToddlersDad)
• Food, Glorious Food! — Luschka at Diary of a First Child describes three easy ways her family has started eating healthier. (@diaryfirstchild)
• Celebrating Food — Mrs Green at Little Green Blog believes in food as medicine and thinks it’s worth paying more to keep healthy. (@myzerowaste)
• Oil and Yogurt — What have you been motivated to do with the current oil spill crisis? midnightfeedings has started making her own yogurt. (@midnightfeeding)
• Growth-Spurt Soup (AKA “Beannut Stew”) — BeanMa has a special stew to help her baby through growth spurts that keep her up all night. (@thebeanma)
• Why I Love The Real Food Community — Much like many people who follow AP/NP values, Melodie at Breastfeeding Moms Unite! takes the parts of the “real food” philosophy that work for her family and leaves the rest. (@bfmom)
• Feeding a Family of Six — Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children gives helpful tips for feeding a family of six.
• Starting Solids at 6 Months — Did your doctor recommend that you give your baby cereal? Sheryl at Little Snowflakes discusses how whole foods are so much healthier (and more delicious) than traditional cereal. (@sheryljesin)
• Am I What I Eat? — Andrea!!! at Ella-Bean & Co. has figured out a way to avoid grocery stores nearly altogether.
• Are We Setting Our Kids Up To Fail? — Megan at Purple Dancing Dahlias found that cutting out the junk also transformed her sons’ behavior problems.
• Changing your family’s way of eating — Lauren at Hobo Mama has techniques you can try to move your family gradually toward a healthier diet. (@Hobo_Mama)
• Real Food — What kinds of fake foods do you eat? And why?! Lisa C. at My World Edenwild talks about why she chooses real food.
• A Snackaholic’s Food Battle — Julie at Simple Life wants to stop snacking and get into the old ways of cooking from scratch and raising her own food. (@homemakerjulie)
• Food, Not Fight — Summer at Finding Summer doesn’t want her kids to grow up like her husband: hating everything green. (@summerm)
• How Do You Eat When You Are out of Town? — Cassie at There’s a Pickle In My Life wants some tips on how to eat healthy when you are out of town.
• Carnival of Natural Parenting: Food! — Sybil at Musings of a Milk Maker hopes that by serving her children healthy, balanced meals, they will become accustomed to making good food choices. (@sybilryan)
• There’s No Food Like Home’s — NavelgazingBajan at Navelgazing revels in the Bajan food of her upbringing. (@BlkWmnDoBF)
• This Mom’s Food Journey — Kat at Loving {Almost} Every Moment made a journey from not paying attention to food to growing her own.
• Who Knew Eating Was So Hard? — The challenges involved in changing to healthier eating habits take on a whole new dimension when you have a child who has difficulties eating. kadiera at Our Little Acorn shares her own experiences. (@kadiera)
• Loving Food — Starr at Earth Mama truly believes food is her family’s medicine and is willing to spend days preparing it the traditional way.
• Food Mindfulness — Danielle at born.in.japan details how her family spends money on each category of food. (@borninjp)
• Food for Little People — Zoey at Good Goog wants to bless her daughter with happy traditions built around good food. (@zoeyspeak)
• Eat Like a Baby — Have you been told that you should not equate food with love? Kate Wicker at Momopoly shows us why that’s not necessarily true. (@Momopoly)
• Food — Deb at [email protected] tries to teach her children three rules to help them eat a healthy diet. (@ScienceMum)
• Healthy Eating Lactose-Free — MamanADroit gives us tips on how to eat healthy if you are lactose intolerant (or just don’t want cow milk). (@MamanADroit)