Читать книгу The Yummy Mummy’s Family Handbook - Liz Fraser - Страница 58

I am totally guilty of this in the Dining Room area, and I am not embarrassed or ashamed to admit it at all. This is because I know for a fact that every normal parent I have ever met is as guilty as I am, and has a whole host of naughty eating habits that they would tell their own kids off for. Yes, I do Bad Things.

Like what? Oh, how much time have you got? Like picking at food while I’m cooking it, thus ruining my appetite. Like eating far too fast and not chewing properly. Like often eating bits with my fingers because it’s much more fun. Like talking with my mouth full, reaching across the table to get things, getting down from the table every thirty seconds to fetch something, and starting to clear the plates away before everyone has finished.

But before you chastise me for being a complete pig at the table, I have a perfectly good explanation, which any reasonably faulty, human, honest mother will identify with. Family mealtimes are almost always very hectic: there are a dozen things to be getting on with the moment they are finished, and sitting up straight, eating slowly, asking if your moody three-year-old could kindly pass the salt while ignoring the dramatic spillage that has occurred down the other end of the table is nearly impossible. Instead, we get it all over as quickly as we can, before tidying up after the event.

There are two schools of thought on this one: the first, that parents should always set a good example and to eat badly in front of children and then expect them to eat properly definitely classes as Bad Parenting. The second, that the life of a parent is tiring, stressful, relentless and thankless enough without ruling out fingerlicking and eating straight out of the fridge for good measure. Here are some tips that might help:

Practise what you preach at the dinner table as often as possible, but don’t feel you have to be perfect all the time: occasionally talking with your mouth stuffed full of half-chewed pasta is absolutely fine and only shows you’re human.

The all-seeing eye. Most children observe a million times more than you might think by the way they loaf about looking bored. Beware the little eyes watching as you sneak in a square of chocolate ten minutes before dinner: they see you, and won’t understand the mystifying rules of PMT. Try to be more subtle and you’ll have less to explain later.

Chill out. The list of ‘Rules’ above was written with a good deal of humour by the whole family (except Charlie, who was about one at the time and just wanted to smear mashed banana in his hair). Nobody is expected to stick to it all the time, and some rules are mainly there for laughs. Our kids know that, and I don’t think they feel as though they are being brought up in a Victorian orphanage. If family mealtimes are an ordeal then something is seriously wrong—food is to be enjoyed, not endured, so do remember to laugh occasionally when your son knocks his entire plate of food onto his sister’s lap. It is quite funny, if you think about it.