by Charlie Brooks posted in Parenting

I can?t be the only person who walks away from certain talks with my kids and thinks "Oh my God...I am seriously messing these children up." Right"
There are always going to be parenting battles I feel like I'm losing. That has to be true of just about every parent out there, right"
It's not like parenting is a constant fail state for me. Overall, I'm very happy with the way my kids are growing up. But there are a few battles that I just haven?t figured out how to win yet. Odds are good that I never will. Sometimes, it just feels like I should run up the white flag on these altogether.

 
Vegetables

Ah, I had such grand designs when it came to getting my kids to eat veggies. I reasoned that if I could make sure to provide a veggie option with each meal, it would become normal to them and they wouldn?t think twice about gobbling down their broccoli. 'Twas not to be. These kids' brains seem capable of determining what foods have the most nutritional value and avoiding them at all costs. I tried avoiding the "no dessert until you eat your vegetables" ultimatum, but that didn?t even matter ? the kids will forego ice cream to avoid eating peas.
In retaliation for my attempts to keep them healthy, they?ve even started putting stipulations on my veggie preparation. If I cook the broccoli, they won?t eat it because they only eat it raw. (Spoiler alert: they don?t eat it raw, either.) I haven?t given up th...