Friday, January 22nd, 2010...6:00 am
Don’t Yuck My Yum
When I was teaching cooking camp last summer, I explained to the kids that although they didn’t need to actually enjoy all of the food we made, they weren’t allowed to talk smack about it. You know how kids are – they are easily swayed by other people’s opinions. And I didn’t want one naysayer to get between the other students and their pasta primavera.
While the kids were outside blowing off some steam, I delivered some of our home-made pickles to the summer camp office staff. We chatted about kids and their attitudes about food and the camp director taught me the best phrase ever: ”Don’t Yuck My Yum!” I have been using it ever since – and the best part is that the kids really get it. It’s clear and simple. Don’t let your bad attitude affect my enjoyment of food!
How do you deal with food-negativity in your house? Do you have a special phrase that works well for your family?
4 Comments
January 22nd, 2010 at 7:11 am
My children are small (4 and 2) and the little one is very influenced by what his big sister is doing. If she says that “she does not like something”, then inevitably, he’ll say something similar a few minutes later… We deal with it by having a few gentle rules:
- You can’t say you don’t like it before even tasting it!
- You are allowed not to like something but you have to put it in a nice way “it’s good but it’s not my favorite dish” for instance.
- If there is something someone does not like, we talk about it so as to acknowledge each other tastes…
- Mostly we talk about all the things we like to show that what we don’t like is really small.
January 22nd, 2010 at 7:20 am
Thanks Gaelle – it is so much fun to hear about how other families handle an issue that is present in every household! Ah yes – isn’t it interesting how kids often declare they don’t like something before even trying it!
Thanks for visiting
January 25th, 2010 at 2:15 pm
Our kids have to take a “no thank you” bite of whatever we serve. Usually they say it while they’re biting into it, but we’re always pleasantly surprised when they go back for more “no thank you” bites
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January 26th, 2010 at 10:29 am
We encourage a “no, thank you” bite here, too! Sometimes they pretend to taste the food – but usually they will at least give it a try before rejecting it!
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