I would like to introduce you to Guest Blogger and You're the Cure Advocate, Liz Tatham who shares her thoughts on feeding her family in a time when convenience and peer pressure often outweigh healthy choices. Thank you for sharing your story with us Liz - Enjoy!
Tough Love at the Table
After much thought. I have come to the conclusion that it is time for some tough love at the table.
As the mother of four, I have made it my priority to raise respectful children with life skills of self-sufficiency, and the ability to make healthy choices, and intelligent decisions, that impact their future and the future of others.
As much as I would like to think that every parent across the country has the same parental priorities, I have to accept that this may not be the case and ultimately our children will pay the price. I could not have imagined that tough love and serious focus would be required in the way we feed our children, but the truth is that this is what will give our children a more hopeful future than the one of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease they are currently facing.
My mother taught me that I was wealthy, because I was eating good food and I had my health.
I grew up under the poverty line in the poorest county in Kansas. I did not realize that my family was considered “poor” until I went to school and met friends who bought their bread and ice cream in a grocery store and had running water instead of an underground well with a pump. As the 7th child of 8, I’ve always had memories of following and helping my mother in the garden. It wasn’t a hobby to prepare soil, plant, weed, and harvest vegetables and fruits, without the garden we would not eat vegetables and fruits. As I got older I knew I was responsible for my allotted rows in the garden. I had to weed them before I played. And often I would play as I weeded. I was very connected to my food because I knew where my food was coming from. I also knew that the meals we ate were eaten together at a table. It didn’t matter what I, or my siblings, were up to when the dinner bell rang, we stopped what we were doing. If you wanted dinner you needed to be at the table.
...to contunue reading about Liz's journey and thoughts on feeding her family, please follow this link to the MomsRising Blog.
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