When I became a mom, between the shelves full of parenting books and my nutrition degree, I thought feeding my kids would be nothing more than breakfast, or rather, a slice of organic whole-wheat bread.
Narrator: Ah, but it wasn’t easy. And those pesky kids never learned to like whole wheat bread.
That’s why I started this website 17 years ago. Feeding the kids was much harder than I expected. And it was harder than people on the internet say it is.
The advice there was enough to send me into a spiral of shame. Endless rules, food fears, and warnings that one wrong move will ruin your children for life.
But my two sons are grown now. They will be 18 and 22 this year. (Hug me!) I’ve overcome many of the standard challenges with feeding, including toddler dinner strikes, leftover lunches, picky eating frustrations, and growing concerns. At times, I wasn’t at all confident that I could make it!
Every child today has a food they have never liked before. After all, they have two recovering picky eaters as parents.
But overall, they’ve grown into people who eat a decent kind of diet and have a good relationship with food and eating, and who I would put in the category of “successful eaters” – people who take the time to try new foods and can “make do” with less desirable foods when necessary.
Looking back, I don’t think the ongoing micromanagement of making Instagram-perfect lunches or sticking to “approved” foods helped. It was about some habits that are boring in the best sense of the word and function quietly in the background.
These habits aren’t magic. But they create structure, trust, and balance around food, so kids can learn to eat well without pressure. And you can stop feeling like every meal is a make-or-break moment. Set it in place, lather, rinse, repeat, and let time do the rest.
Here are 10 habits that have made a difference in our home.
