Big Boy Loses Again

In general, I’ve done a lot of random things in my life. New experiences are something that keep me going and I generally like to agree to new opportunities. Coworkers are amazed at the random things I’ve done – one of which was to enter a weight loss competition. I did this in early 2011 and it was sponsored by a Kansas City-area fitness magazine. In a very public way, I put it all out there that I weighed 339 pounds. Over the course of the next 12 weeks, I worked out almost every day with a pair of fantastic personal trainers, ate a very strict diet and proceeded to lose 82 pounds and won the competition. 

Coming off of splitting with my now ex-wife, it was a personal mission and something I took great pride in doing. I was on a high after winning the competition and had very high hopes  of continuing to lose the weight. As you might have imagined, that didn’t quite work out as planned. Perhaps it was the big meal I went and had as a celebration that was a sign. While I was focused on winning the competition, I wasn’t focused on continuing to make lifestyle changes.

Cut to 2 years later and I have gained back about half of the weight I had lost. While working out continued to be a part of my life, it wasn’t as big a part. What really changed was my eating. I had no real regard for what I was eating, even though I know plenty better. There’s probably a thousand reasons why I ended up gaining some of the weight back, but the real reason is that I got lazy – a common problem for me. 

Literally and figuratively hard. And an actual workout.

But a new opportunity has presented itself, a new competition. My fantastic girlfriend and I have entered a new weight loss competition that is sponsored by a local nutrition business that specializes in selling Herbalife products. This competition is also for money. Since I’m pretty damn competitive, this competition is stoking that fire once again and I’m damn motivated. 

We’re now 8 days into the competition and we had our second weigh in last night and I lost a pretty staggering 15 pounds in one week. That’s some Biggest Loser type stuff. But to be honest, I was a rock star this week. Charlene and I ate amazingly well – healthy foods, proteins, drinking more water, all very healthy things. We’ve also stepped up our games on our workouts. We’re running, taking new classes at our gym and working out even harder with our trainer. 

What the future of this competition holds, who knows. It’s 11 weeks long and I have a goal of losing 60. Overall, I’d like to lose around 80 pounds, which would put me at 220 pounds. I don’t think I’ve weighed that since I was a freshman in high school. But the real proof will come after the competition. It’s how I will continue to make this kind of eating and living a part of who I am. In short, it’s put up or shut up time. 

Plenty more posts to come as I update the progress through the competition and there’s more aspects of being heavy, losing weight, etc. I want to delve into. Until then, got my water bottle handy. 

Until next time, 

Kurt

Dude, Will You Be My Friend?

You call up your buddy, invite him over, you grab a few beers, retire to the basement and watch a game. Or, more likely, you invite him and his kids over and you grab a couple of foldable chairs as you drink a beer while watch them play in the driveway.

Yeah, it’s the adult male friend. For some, it’s quite natural to have a group of buddies that they regularly hang out with or their families get together on a random Friday. For others, those adult male friends are far more elusive. In fact, they made a whole movie about it – it’s called “I Love You, Man.”

In that movie, Paul Rudd is newly engaged to Rashida Jones’ character and she begins to realize that, while he’s a great catch, he doesn’t have any male friends. The movie then goes on to detail his attempt to make some male friends and even some “man dates” to try and meet some new buddies.

I must confess that I fall into the category of guys that have trouble making male friends as an adult. And I’m not 100% sure why.

A little background. I have two people I would call “best friends,” but they both happen to live in the San Francisco Bay Area where I partly grew up. While we can still pick up wherever we left off and see each other at least once a year, there’s still 51 other weeks a year that we don’t get to hang out.

Most of the time, I am not really bothered by the lack of male friends. In actuality, I am busy with kids, life, etc. But there are times on weekends or after work when it would be nice to have a buddy like that.

I am assuming that since there’s a movie about the subject, I am not the only one this happens to.  So, the question is why this happens? Is it me, am I boring to hang out with? Am I too busy with kids, GF, etc. to be a good buddy to a single dude? Or are more guys just busy with life and in situations like I am.

I know to Charlene and other’s it’s a bit weird that I don’t have more male friends that I can go have a beer with or do something manly with. It really isn’t that much of an issue until it’s presented in a way that makes you realize you might be a little weird. But I just don’t feel all that bad that I don’t have friends like that until I am at home alone while she’s out with her gals.

And really, how do you meet buddies? Is there a Match.com for meeting friends? I know Charlene has plenty of friends that are married or have boyfriends. And I figure that’s one way to make friends. But sometimes, you don’t have anything in common with those guys.

I guess I’m just curious if this is something other guys, or women for that matter, have a problem with or am I just the weird one?

Did I Screw Up By Not Red-Shirting My Kid?

So undoubtedly some of the water cooler talk today is going to be about how parents are red-shirting their kids after the interesting 60 Minutes piece Sunday. What is red-shirting? Wait, isn’t that something my favorite college athletes do? In short, red-shirting kids is when parents of children who have a birthday close to the cutoff age to enter kindergarten or first grade decide to wait a year before putting their children in school, thus making them one of the oldest children in their class.

The 60 Minutes piece credits the red-shirting movement with getting a huge boost from the book “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell. In “Outliers,” Gladwell does an analysis of Canadian junior league hockey all-stars and then NHL stars and found that most were born in the first part of the year. Why? Because the junior hockey league age cutoff was January 1. That meant that the kids born in the early part of the year would be the oldest when they began playing hockey. Those kids were generally bigger, skated faster, had just a little more experience and would tend to be the better players in the league. Since the older kids were noticed, they made it to all-star teams and traveling teams, where they get more practice and more attention from coaches – making them better players. It’s a cumulative process that works over time.

So apparently this is a trend now if your child is slated to be one of the younger kids in their class to hold them back, therefore giving them an advantage. Although I didn’t realize I was part of this whole movement, my ex-wife and I faced that decision when enrolling our daughter (who is now in second grade) in kindergarten. Her birthday is mid-August, so we knew that she just barely made the cutoff. I had actually read “Outliers” a few months before this decision came up, so I was aware of this phenomenon. We discussed the decision as parents and even discussed it with some school officials and they said that girls have an easier time adjusting when being young in their class. Despite all this, we decided to send Gwyn to kindergarten as one of the younger children.

So now that we’re 2.5 years into that decision how is it working out? When I look at it I see that Gwyn often tends to struggle in the beginning of the year as one of the younger kids, but tends to make a really nice catch up through the middle part of the year and is right on par with her peers by the end of the year. Academically, she is right where she needs to be. Socially, I think sometimes her being younger and a little less mature may have impacted her socially, but it’s tough to tell if her AD/HD has played a bigger role than her age.

Do I wonder about the long-term impacts of our decision? Certainly. I want my daughter to succeed. I want her to have as many advantages as she can. But is it fair or not to red-shirt a kid? I don’t quite know. I think it really is a case by case decision. However, in the 60 Minutes extra on the Web, Gladwell gives an amazingly common sense solution to red-shirting. He says, put kids in school by their birth date, if at all possible. For instance, at my daughter’s school there are three classes of each grade. So Gladwell would suggest splitting them up with birth months grouped together, so they are situated with development levels close to them. Seems to make perfect sense to me. It takes away parents trying to game the system, appropriately or not, and makes it more of a level playing field.

What do you think of the trend?

Until next time,

Kurt

How Nicki Minaj Made a Fan of my Daughter

So on this blog I’ve talked about the type of music my kids listen to. Since I listen to a variety of music, it’s no surprise they like some interesting bands and artists. But my daughter is firmly in love with the female hip-hop star of the moment, Nicki Minaj. And really is it any surprise that a 7-year-old girl would love Nicki? If you’ve seen the video of the two precocious girls covering Nicki Minaj on Ellen, the answer is no.

So Gwyn wants to hear Nicki Minaj songs whenever we’re in the car, especially “Superbass” and “Moment 4 Life.” She tries to sing along, but when Nicki raps its hard for almost anyone to keep up. Gwyn also loves Nicki’s style, different hair colors and wild dresses. She’s kind of every little girl’s dream. And before you ask, yes, we listen to the edited versions of the songs.

So I have been trying to think about what all this says about Gwyn, me as a parent and pop culture in general. For Gwyn, I think she likes the fact that Nicki is basically a grown-up kid. Her look is a lot of what a young girl might dream up if her parents didn’t have  any rules. Her songs on her “Pink Friday” album are fun and have a lot of whimsy to them. Some of them are also inspirational and uplifting. It makes sense that young girls dig it.

Is that Roman?

What it says about me as a dad? Well, I’ve been a Nicki fan for a while. I’ve had some Twitter debates over the merits of Nicki. I think she flows better than most male rappers and she often uses some nice word play in her lyrics. She likes to play characters in her songs, which if nothing else, is unique. Now, Nicki’s new material seems to have taken a decidedly more pop turn. I don’t know if I’m a huge fan. I think those people that are guiding Lady Gaga and Katy Perry have gotten to Nicki. I think she will probably make a ton of money off of this, but it’s a short lifespan to be a pop artist like that. The longevity is in being a true hip-hop artist. But I do take some pride in the fact that Gwyn likes a rapper at age 7.

What does all of this say about pop culture? I think it speaks to the fact that although many of today’s pop artists like Gaga, Katy Perry and others have many sexual overtones, they also appeal to young girls. In some ways this is worrisome, because I don’t necessarily need my daughter trying to impersonate provocative dances at age 7.  But I assume girls have always followed pop stars be it Diana Ross, Olivia Newton-John, Madonna, Britney Spears or the new crop. This isn’t something new.

So I guess I will have to deal with a lot of Nicki Minaj for the time being. However, my daughter was firmly in love with Justin Bieber a year ago and now thinks he’s stupid. So who knows how long this will last. She has, however, said she wants a Nicki Minaj birthday and wants to be Nicki for Halloween. So there’s that.

Until next time,

Kurt

Reaching A New Age Selection In The Drop-Down

So today yours truly turns 35 years of age. I’ve already had an overload of Facebook birthday wishes. The kids were quite kind and got me a Star Wars card and a Lego Star Wars pen. In reality, those were very much for them – they’re slick. I will have a wonderful evening with my lady tonight and had a good time with my parents over the weekend.

Here’s the thing – it feels weird to call myself 35. I was riding in the car with my dad over the weekend and he was confirming that I would be 35 and it felt weird. I mean, when I was a kid 35 might as well have been 93. But I don’t feel 35 at all. I have Rick Ross as my desktop background and I still have trouble making my bed every day. Sure, I have two kids, a stable job and am a generally productive member of society, but it just feels weird to be 35.

Watch out now!

But maybe this is a new form of adulthood. Maybe this generation is transforming what it means to get older? Maybe we aren’t going to be wearing mom jeans and listening to easy listening. We’re going to Kanye concerts and still saying “hella.” Is that a bad thing? I don’t really think so. It’s a new normal. Maybe we will never really grow up like our parents did. Maybe we will be the generation that continues to resist settling.

Even though I may jokingly call myself old when the subject of 35 comes up, I don’t feel it. Frankly, I hope I never feel my age.

Until next time,

Kurt

Guest Blog: A Culture Of Bitching

I was delighted when my friend Cari said she had a guest post she wanted to share on the blog and I was even more excited after reading her post. Cari is one of my good friends, she’s incredibly smart and one of the more down to earth people you will ever meet and I respect her perspective. I really like the message of her post. You can find Cari online through Twitter @socreepy. 

We do love something to complain about, don’t we? Every morning when I check Twitter it’s as reliable as the sun rising – “My blah blah blah hurts,” “Today sucks,” “I can’t believe she just $@&$% cut me off!” “I hate my family.” It’s truly a microcosm for the world. If you bring happiness to Twitterland, you better bring it in small doses or you will be banished from the playground. It has me thinking: why are we like this? Are we really that unhappy? I’m not so sure we are. I think somewhere along the line it’s just become the cultural, American way to bitch about everything. It’s much easier and more comfortable (and more accepted) than saying something positive or nice. Sometimes mass complaining works for good (see Netflix, Bank of America, Verizon and Susan G. Komen). Mostly it serves to perpetuate more complaining. It also spreads quicker than a zombie virus.

The recent Superbowl buzz with M.I.A. flipping off the world brought it into focus for me. Are people upset because she was disrespectful? Some probably are. Are they upset because she wagged her finger at the revered American institution of football? More like this. Are they upset because their kids saw it? Eh, probably not as much as the other two reasons.

Seriously

Since I don’t have kids, I get the pleasure of enjoying parental adventures through my friends’ kids. They are definitely emotional mini-me’s. It’s interesting to see the difference. My miserable, complainy friends? The rocket science answer – they have miserable, complainy kids. My mostly happy friends? Ditto. Their kids are pretty happy.

It makes me ponder our attitudes on a smaller scale. I’d love nothing more than to hug the world with positive thinking. That was actually a joke. In some ways. I’m a realist, after all. A realist that sees when you throw a rock in a still pond, the whole pond eventually moves.

Kids can’t be sheltered from life and all the negativity that flows around us every day but we don’t have to teach being miserable by example. Occasional bad days aside, our words (as well as our actions) guide and set the tone for them and the other people in our lives. The next time we feel like complaining, we need to check twice and see what little ears might be listening. The big ears don’t really feel like hearing it, either. If you see the world through the eyes of “everything is pretty good – ignore those haters,” so will your kids and that is a mighty powerful gift to share.

Every generation has hope. I still haven’t lost hope for mine. Or theirs. So quit bitching.

Cari

 

 

 

 

 

 

What To Do When Your Kid’s Favorite Song Is Toot It And Boot It

As parents we try our best to monitor what our kids watch, listen to and play with. Well, at least we like to pretend we do. In all honesty, we like to give things a once over before we let the kids watch or listen to something, but do we really watch the whole TV program or whole song? In my case, I probably listen to the whole song, just because I’m a music lover. In short, as parents we either don’t have time to vet everything our kids consume from an entertainment standpoint or we don’t care all that much.

So that brings us to my son’s favorite song, YG’s “Toot It and Boot It.” Yeah, not the ideal song for a nearly 4-year-old to be enjoying, but the kid loves the song. I must also say that the version we listen to is the edited version – just so I’m not the worst parent ever.

I use Spotify on my phone, which allows me to look up pretty much any song I or the kids want to hear. And we even have a playlist for the kids to listen to. It’s compromised of LMFAO, Selena Gomez, Katy Perry, the Chipmunks, tons others and YG, of course. Somehow, I played “Toot It And Boot It” once and the kids loved it and it’s now requested whenever we’re in the car. And now it gets played at least once a day when I have the kids.

When you think about it, a song called “Toot It And Boot It” sounds pretty silly. It sounds like it should be sung by the Wiggles. But the song is about having sex with a girl and then leaving. Obviously, not the best messaging for the kids, but from the edited version, I don’t think even the sharpest 7-year-old could figure that out. And the song is catchy. The verses aren’t great, because YG raps like he has marbles in his mouth. And he brags about making a girl feel stupid after having sex with her. Hey, we have all had a one night stand before, but why do you have to make the girl feel stupid, Mr. YG?

You tooted? Oh YG, you're so funny.

I will spare you breaking down the lyrics, because you will lose brain cells if I do. But, this is part of the kid’s life is listening to some songs that may have more adult themes. I really try to keep them from the cursing, but sometimes it can be difficult. But let’s face it, many of the pop songs on the radio have some pretty adult and sexual undertones (half of the Rihanna, Lady Gaga and Katy Perry songs). However, my kids seem to love these songs. They’re designed to be catchy – I get why the kids like them. But sometime’s there just songs I can’t let the kids sing, when they’re just too overt. When my daughter is singing “S&M” as we walk through the mall, we have to nix that song from the rotation.

That’s the thing I wonder, what kind of influence will this music have on my kids. My dad has always listened to a lot of oldies, doo wop and folk music. My mom listened to a lot of adult contemporary, easy listening and Broadway shows. Consequently, I have an appreciation for Motown and yacht rock. While I try to let my kids hear a wide array of music, I wonder what my daughter loving Katy Perry or my son loving “Toot It And Boot It” will do to their music sensibility and their overall sensibility? Who knows if that will make my son a douchey guy who sags his pants, wears stickers on his flat-billed hat and has tats all over his body or maybe he’ll go the exact opposite side and be into show tunes and wear bow ties.

Either way, right now we’ll be the family in the maroon car bumping YG. Holler at your fam!

Until next time,

Kurt

What Kind Of Future Do Jay-Z And Beyonce Have?

So I have a few questions I like to bring up at dinner parties, bars or the random boring work meeting. One of them involves how big people think Shaquille O’Neal’s nether regions are (which is probably a blog post for another time) and the other more recent one is if Jay-Z and Beyonce cheat on each other. It’s the kind of question that can involve most people because they know who they are and even if they don’t really care about them, it’s an interesting way to comment on two successful, powerful people who are married.

As a couple, Jay-Z and Beyonce have to be one of the most powerful in the entertainment industry and are one of the most recognizable in the world. They’re married and they now have a kid. Jay-Z is estimated to have a net worth of somewhere around $450 million, with Beyonce having somewhere in the area around $250 million range. She’s regarded as one of the most beautiful women on the planet by many men, while Jay-Z is admittedly a somewhat average looking dude. Both have huge music catalogs and have had huge influence on hip-hop, R&B and popular music for more than 15 years.

So those are what they’re working with. So there’s really kind of two questions here. First, do you think they are faithful to each other? Do you think that when Jay-Z was playing Cleveland on a Tuesday night on Watch The Throne, that there weren’t girls ready to throw themselves at him? Or if he’s in New York while Beyonce is off filming a movie, is he being responsible and going home alone? Conversely, Beyonce probably has some of the best looking guys on the planet ready to fall all over themselves for her. Is she going to look at some six-packed male model type on a random Thursday in Denver when she hasn’t seen Jay in a couple weeks and say, “Nahhhhh, I’m good!”

I hate to be a pessimist, but something tells me they have had to have cheated. First, they’re both incredibly powerful people. They’re not used to hearing no very much. Jay-Z has pretty much taken talk of women out of his more recent raps, but is he keeping his wick dry, for lack of a better term? I find it easier to think Beyonce wouldn’t have, but in the looks department, there’s certainly a lot of room to go up. From Jay-Z’s perspective is the fact there’s maybe only about 20 women on the planet hotter than Beyonce keeping him from straying? Is fear of a crazy divorce keeping him from doing it. Or now, is the kid keeping them faithful?

Will it work?

The new question is what will the kid do to their relationship? I can see Beyonce being a good, but busy mom. I think Jay will likely be a good dad. If you listen to his lyrics, he still holds a pretty big grudge for his dad not really being around when he grew up. I don’t think he wants to be that dad. On a semi-unrelated note, how fantastic is “Glory?” I think any father can completely relate to that song.

One thing that people don’t realize that makes Hollywood or entertainment relationships nearly impossible is the sheer amount of time those people spend away from each other. They’re filming a movie for months at a time, going on tour, filming a TV show, these mean that you’re away from your spouse and family for long periods of time. Anyone that’s ever done a long-distance relationship knows that can be really hard. You simply need to be around your spouse if you want to make it work.

I’d certainly like to see them work as a couple. It would be nice to see two incredibly wealthy, incredibly powerful people be a good example. But the numbers aren’t on their side. But there’s got to be a few couples that help break the trend, right? So what do you think? Do they cheat on each other? Do they have a good future together?

Until next time,

Kurt

Bang Goes The Gavel – The Official Divorce

When most people get married, there’s more celebration, pomp and circumstance and excitement than almost any other time in our lives. Naturally so, it’s a time to celebrate the union of two people in love making a very real commitment. It’s a big deal.

However, when you get divorced and you’re not some Hollywood celebrity, there is not really any of that excitement or pomp and circumstance. Again, this is rightly so. It’s a very formal commitment that is coming to an end, many times with some children in the middle of the break.

So there I sat in a small courtroom on the eighth floor of the county courthouse. My very soon-to-be-ex-wife and I sitting at the same table looking at the judge, the only other person in the courtroom and my hands were clammy from being nervous about what was going to transpire. It took all of about 30 minutes for the judge to ask us a few questions about the arrangement as he looked over the top of his glasses and fussed with the papers in our divorce documents. Eventually he declared that we were, in fact, “incompatible.” He stamped the paper, handed it to us and we walked out of the courtroom. We went to the court clerk, we made some copies, she did some more stamping and it was done.

Not really that bad.

Perhaps a sign of something is the fact we rode to the divorce hearing together. We were technically married for 6.5 years. We have been split for about 16 months and the actual divorce was a long time coming. In the time since we split, there were many stages. In some parts we knew that splitting was inevitable, so I think we had prepared ourselves for what were to come. But no matter how much you can expect something like that to come, when you are thrown into being alone, there is no preparing you for it.

There’s no rule book for how something like a divorce should be. Are you supposed to be at each other’s throat? Is it weird that you can go have dinner at her house and stay to watch a TV show with your kid’s and her boyfriend? Certainly other people can tell you these things are right or wrong, but that may just be right or wrong for them. For us, it worked. For us, it worked that we actually like each other. For us, it worked that we made an agreement pretty early that we were going to take the high road. And unlike many decisions in my life, we actually stuck to this one.

In the end, this divorce was the most mature thing I’ve ever done. We actually did what was best for the kids. Until literally the last second, we did it together – we sat on the same table in the court room. Isn’t it actually crazy that being civil and level-headed worked out? Why can’t more things go this well?

Give tons of credit to Renee, who you have heard from on this blog before. Give credit to level heads. Give credit to two kids who were the inspiration for all of that. In some ways it feels weird to finally be divorced, but it also feels good. I feel lucky to have had things gone the way they did, but I also know it took lots of work. Here’s hoping I can take lessons in how to be mature from this process.

Until next time,

Kurt

Just Eat The Food…

While many of us parents might have different parenting styles, different ways to discipline and different views on education, I think most of us probably share some frustration with one thing – to get our kids to eat. Certainly there’s probably some of you overachievers that have figured out to get your kids to eat the healthiest of foods and to eat good portions each time. Those people can first stop lying and secondly, skip this post. For the rest of us, this is a constant battle.

Let me describe my kids eating habits. My 7-year-old daughter doesn’t have great eating habits. As I’ve mentioned, she has ADHD and takes medication for it, so that impacts her eating habits. For breakfast she like Eggo waffles during the week. On weekends she likes eggs, bacon, pancakes and other decent breakfast food. She eats lunch at school, which is an entirely different post. From what I gather, she doesn’t eat very well at school. Sometimes it’s because the food is nasty (I wouldn’t eat it) and other times I don’t think she is all that hungry. When she gets home she’s usually hungry for some kind of crappy snack (usually something sweet) and then dinner can be a complete toss-up. She is not a lover of many proteins. She loves carbs with a passion – pasta, bread and the like. The only meat she eats are chicken usually. To get her to eat anything other than that can be a complete struggle.

What a surprise, chicken strips again.

My son, on the other hand, is a meat lover. He eats some carbs, but much prefers meats. For breakfast he will usually have Cheerios on weekdays, but the same breakfasts on the weekends. I don’t even know what he has for lunch at school because I don’t get to see the menu, but undoubtedly he eats well. For dinner, he is far easier to please. He will eat almost any meat I put in front of him. The only thing he really hates is mac and cheese, go figure.

So as a parent I face two different struggles. With my daughter, it has almost always been to get her to actually eat her food. Depending on what’s on her plate, the dinner can go something like this:

Me: Gwyn, eat your meat. (She eats one bite, a bite of bread, talks, fidgets, etc)

Me: Gwynie, can you eat some more food, please? (She eats one more bit, lots more bread, one kernel of corn).

Gwyn: Dad, can I be done?

Me: Gwyn, you need to eat a little more for me, baby. (She eats a half a bite of meat, finishes her bread and one more kernel of corn)

Gwyn: I’m done, daddy.

After a loud sigh I try to convince her to eat a little more which can or can’t be successful. Depending on the day, I might fight the battle or not.

My son eats at the approximate pace of a 92-year-old man. He will eat his food, but is busy pretending to be Luke Skywalker in his mind and will forget that it’s actually time to eat. So by the time Gwyn and I are done eating, he has eaten about six bites and we sit there and wait for him to finish his food. There’s plenty worse problems to have, but it can make the end of some meals tedious as we watch him slowly finish he meal.

What is most troublesome for me as a parent is trying to get the right foods for my kids. To no surprise they like fast food and I take full responsibility for that. Even if I don’t eat it, sometimes we’re so busy I stop at McDonalds or another fast food place just to get them dinner at a reasonable time. And even when we don’t eat at fast food, they’re certainly not one to veer from the typical suburban chain restaurants. Much to my chagrin, they’re chicken strip, french fry eaters at many restaurants. I know I came to like foods like sushi, Thai, guacamole and others when I was an adult – but there has to be a way to move from the chicken strip/pizza mentality. But let’s face it, most of us don’t want to fight that battle when we’re at our neighborhood eatery – we just want to have a nice meal, so we let the kids order their chicken strips.

So how did we come to this? How did kids become such picky eaters? I think many of us, when we were kids were made to eat what was on our plates. I know I was. You ate what was on your plate or there was some kind of discipline. We didn’t waste food. Like most kids, I wasn’t adventurous in eating, but my parents weren’t exactly throwing cuisine from around the globe at me. But I do thank them for introducing seafood and some other dishes that people seem to freak out over. But how is it that I’m celebrating that I managed to get my kids to eat a burrito as some big victory? Why don’t our kids face the same punishment when they don’t eat their meal? I don’t really know the answer. I try to be tough about it, but at the end of the day, I can’t shove food down the kid’s throats. And it’s not always a battle I want to fall on the sword for.

So what’s the answer here? How do we get kids to expand their horizons? Or how do we get them to simply eat a meal? How do we get a fast meal in that’s not fast food? A lot of that is finding creative ways to get healthier food for the kids, some of it is taking small steps to expand their horizons. And I think some of it is giving them one option.

But here’s where I ask what you are doing or what you did with your kids? I’m incredibly interested to know how the other half lives. Are you facing the same problems? Help a dad out. And kids, just eat your food! Pretty please?

Until next time,

Kurt