When your children are little you have a lot more control over how they eat. I liked to feed my kids healthy. Vegetables, fruit, home cooked as much as possible. I always had some picky eaters so I did need to disguise a little and leave some things more plain, hold the sauce, etc.
But fast forward to the teenage era, it is a whole other ballgame. First of all, you need to get comfortable with the fact that your kids are going to eat some junk. Ok, probably lots of it. You can’t be too restrictive because this will just make those things more attractive. Especially once they can drive they are going to gravitate to the fast food restaurants that give them an affordable opportunity to exercise their freedom.
One thing that helps combat the potential effects and concerns surrounding this is for your teens to be involved in sports. Mine are student athletes so I feel they can withstand some junk because they need a lot of calories in a day and as long as the foundation is healthy they are going to be able to maintain a healthy body even with a good amount of junk thrown in.
If you have little kids, try not to freak out. When mine were little, I used to be so concerned because every holiday seemed to involve candy.
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t supply a lot of junk at home. I do provide snacks. You want to make your kids friends welcome. You want your house to be the house to be as much as possible. So you’ve got to have some hands on food like frozen pizzas and things like that. But you can gravitate toward the fruit snacks rather than actual candy, capri sun or flavored sparkling waters rather than soda, healthier chips.
Control what you can control. Stock your fridge and pantry with mostly healthy foods and staples will allow you to provide healthy options alongside the inevitable junk.
Where we live high school starts super early so the kids are starving when they get home. Sometimes they don’t feel like much breakfast when heading out but I try to have some on hand breakfast bars or fruit they can grab and go. Smoothies are great too. We have some from Costco that my kids love. But if you make your own at home you can sneak a lot of good stuff in there.
On a good day, depending on my work schedule, I will try to have some healthy food prepared when they return from school. Crockpots are great for this.
And there you have it. My tips and tricks for feeding that difficult breed, teenagers. Let me know yours!
Notes From Real Life 