Today I overheard a conversation between my kids. I overheard my 13 year old daughter telling my 15 year old son, “Daniel, you probably want to wait. The brownies will be out of the oven in 5 minutes.” I walked in to the kitchen and Daniel was pouring chips from a paper plate back into the chip bag. I asked him what was up and he said that he wanted to eat the brownie instead of the chips, so he was going to wait for the brownies to come out of the oven and then to cool.
The really bizarre thing is…the way *I* was raised, I would have eaten the chips and *then* also eaten the brownies. But it occurred to both of my kids without them having to think about it to “spend” their hunger on a brownie.
I know that they have gotten frustrated over the years with me and my Thin Within talk…I have been so immersed in it all working with Judy and Dr. Arthur and then the Thin Within company…and there are times when they will say, “But WE don’t *want* to wait to go out to eat because WE are hungry NOW!” and make me realize that I have been quite self-centered in assuming others don’t care about hunger or not and that they would wait for me because *I* care…well, they have too…and they like to eat “pleasers” when they are hungry…Well, brownies definitely seem to fit into that category for all of us.
I know that some will think I shouldn’t let my kids eat whenever they want and have things like chips and brownies around the house…but well…my kids are both naturally thin and they come from “chubby” stock…my husband and I were both “husky” kids. My kids look nothing like my husband and I did…we both were raised in restrictive environments food-wise. Me, excessively so…I have reacted to the dysfunctions that came out of my past and all my eating/food/self-image struggles by wanting to raise my kids opposite of the way I was raised. When it comes to being thin, they are there without thinking about it. I don’t know if it will always be that way…
But I am pleased that they both can stop in the middle of a meal, throwing away food they are no longer hungry for.
Today, my kids were blessing me folding laundry while I was doing some nasty yucky cleaning preparing for a big doo we are having on Thanksgiving Day. My 13 year old daughter came out and said, “Ok, Mom…that does it! I thought TWO pair of YOUR jeans were MINE!” I told her that I was flattered…she said, “No, Mom…it is just plain SCARY.”
Big grins coming from me today on that one.
Even if she only made it up to compliment me. It makes me smile.