Anyway, I'm getting off topic. What I want to talk about is how my husband and I plan to keep our daughter from ingesting the junk that the restaurant (I hate even calling it a restaurant - I think that term should be reserved for places that serve "real" food!) serves, especially the food they market to children. This is a choice we've made mainly in regards to the food, but also in regards to money - when we decided (in December of 2009) that I would be a SAHM, we knew that our finances would change somewhat. It wasn't a drastic change - I have actually never worked full-time (usually part-time to 3/4 time) because of continuing my education, so while we saw a dip in our income, it wasn't too substantial. Also, even with driving to playdates and spreading out errands a little more (doing just one a day instead of several in order to have a reason to get out of the house every day!), we really DO spend less with me being home with Abby all day.
But - we still do not have quite as much money coming in as we used to. That's just a hard, cold fact. So we always look for ways to save - and things like not taking our daughter to McDonald's just seems like a no-brainer. We rarely go out to eat as it is (something which was the same pre-baby), so why would we change that with Abby and spend more money and give her unhealthy food? I'm not completely unrealistic - I understand that there may be times when we're on vacation and it may be really difficult to prepare a home-cooked meal (staying at a hotel, for example) or a time when a very special treat is in order, but that's what fast food should be - a very special treat given very sparingly.
I know that Abby is not going to eat perfectly 100% of the time, but Max and I are going to try our hardest to help her form the mindset that healthy eating is and should be the norm for her growing body (though it's okay to have a treat once in a while). I think, for so many people, it has become the norm to eat highly-processed, cheap, easy to make (quick to make) food because it's easier - and I won't deny that it really IS a million times easier! - and so people may think we're weird for wanting our child to eat as organically as possible (within reason - organic = expensive, so we won't be able to give her EVERYTHING organic, unfortunately), and to not have dessert every night, or keep a lot of junk food (if any) in the house, etc., etc.
I hope that we can raise Abby with a healthy, positive attitude toward food, one that allows her to see that we should eat to live, NOT live to eat. I hope she's never made fun of by other kids if she brings a healthy lunch to school or never has Kool-Aid as a child (I never did!). I hope she never feels as though we were keeping her from enjoying something when we don't buy her a Happy Meal (or at least not every time she asks). I hope we can keep the overwhelming direct-to-kids advertising from flooding her little mind by keeping the TV OFF.
All in all, I guess I just really hope that we never get any flack from the choices we make about how to raise our child. Max and I are kind of all over the board, in terms of the fact that we don't subscribe to any one particular parenting style - although, if I had to label it, I would put us in the attachment parenting category. But it's OUR parenting style, and OUR child, and although I'm always open to suggestions and advice and always willing to listen, I will never let anyone else decide how we will parent - even if DOES mean we take some heat for our decisions.
My little Abby isn't even 8 months old yet - let's see how much of this Max and I can make stick in the coming years. :)
Posts
