What you eat, and drink does not only affect you alone but your children as well. During their formative years, children normally want to be like their parents, remember parents are their first role models. This makes them choose to eat like parents do, some even talk like their parents do.
The way we live is a sum of what our parents did while we were growing up and what we saw elsewhere in the environment, i.e. school, church, etc.
If you stock your fridge with lots of soft drinks, you only have the opportunity to keep drinking them in the comfort of your home. Your children will do same. Some of the signs seen in homes where parents keep soft drinks is that their children easily become fat and obese. It actually starts with the parents themselves. Though many people cherish fat and chubby children, it is not a thing to be encouraged at all.
Becoming obese as a child could set the stage for a lifelong battle with obesity and its associated non-communicable disease burden. There are some obese children who grow up to be of normal weight though; but that is in the minority. This challenge is only given the chance to thrive because parents teach their children how to abuse soft drinks at home.
People do get the motivation to smoke from seeing their parents smoke, so parents; you may want to stop practicing such habits at home, right in the full glare of your children. It even becomes un-pardonable if parents send their children to buy cigarettes for them to smoke because some of those actions become a learning ground for the children.
Many people who cannot live without alcohol have also seen their parents drink lots of it while they were growing up. Some also have been the ones their parents sent to buy them alcohol. While we indulge in some of these habits, our minds never go onto the fact that our children pick them up as well.
Our children will normally eat what we eat as parents and what we give to them right from infancy. So, if you add sugar to porridges and beverages, they learn how to eat sugar. In this case, making these foods extremely sweet will teach them the likeness for sweet stuff. On the other hand, making food not so sweet is a way of teaching them to go easy on sugar.
When you fry everything at home, the children also learn to become fried food champions. That is why choosing to boil, grill, bake and steam can be a better way to build a healthier family and future for your children. A home where fruits are consumed by parents is also a home where their children consume fruits. That is why it is important that parents make fruit intake a regular habit. Let fruits be on the dining table during meals. Keep fruits in your refrigerator instead of drinks. Also, begin to entertain your guests with fruits instead of using soft drinks and alcoholic beverages.
Parents are therefore encouraged to be good examples at home so that their children can pick up healthy food habits during their formative years; that is a good gift to give the next generation.
