Food Bribes

Lately, I have been feeling conflicted about how I feel about food bribes. I know that food should never be used as a bribe as in, "If you finish your vegetables, you can watch T.V. (or have dessert, or play with your friends, etc.)." But are all food bribes equally bad? Lately, I have caught myself bribing Caroline with food. I was especially disheartened this weekend when eating dinner at my sister's place up in Toronto. It was Caroline's (and her cousin's) 2nd (and her cousin's 7th) birthday celebration and my sister Michelle made a fabulous meal: pork ribs, steak, bean and corn salad, potato salad, tortilla chips, and guacamole. Michelle's kids ate everything but Caroline was only interested in the chips. I love tortilla chips and guacamole so I know where she was coming from. I gave her more chips but insisted that she first eat the salads. Later that weekend, I found myself saying things like, "You can have another tomato if you take a bite of the egg salad." I hate to admit this but in the past, I've even coaxed Caroline into eating another bite of egg salad (or whatever) by giving her only half of a cherry tomato and bribing her with the other half. Did I really just admit that? What?! Am I crazy? Does it really matter if Caroline wants to eat a pound of tomatoes but not her egg salad? Or zucchini instead of yellow summer squash? I asked my sister Sophia about how she handles these types of situations with her three kids. She had good, practical advice. Let your kids eat as much of the healthful foods as they want -- don't get in the way of them gorging on fresh, peaches, carrots, tomatoes, and even pasta. If you're serving treats like chips or French fries with dinner and you think they've had enough just say, "That's enough chips (or French fries)," and put them away. Simple. No more food bribes.