What Do You Do When Your Kid Comes Home Talking About 'Good' and 'Bad' Foods?

I'm rerunning a Snacky Bits prompt from last year because it generated a great discussion over on Substack. Sadly we lost all the comments when we transitioned to Ghost and I'd love to know how you're navigating this now, a year or so later.

You've already heard much of what's been happening now A is in Reception. there was, of course, the teeth thing and the school lunches thing. Last week he told me that he was still being forced to eat at lunchtime so I'm going to have a meeting with his teacher after half-term. All in all, it's going great 🫠.

Here's a recap of what A said to me last year, and how I responded. I'd love to hear how you're having these conversations with your kids!

Some of you may have seen my Instagram stories from last week, but in case you missed it, here’s what happened. While A and I were having dinner one night last week, he told me that cucumber was ‘good’ because it makes you strong. He also told me that carrots go *IN* your eyes. And that crisps were ‘bad’ and you shouldn’t eat too many.

Suffice to say I was inundated with messages from followers sharing stories of their kids coming home talking about ‘healthy’ and ‘unhealthy’ foods, how terrible cake is, and asking how many spoons of sugar are in everything they eat.

Side note: if you’re new around here and are like ‘huh, what’s the big deal?’, here’s your background reading:

Fundamentals: Why Teaching Kids That Food is ‘Healthy’ Can Backfire

And why we need to move beyond food binaries

Can I Have Another Snack?Laura Thomas, PhD, RNutr

Nutrition Education - or Lessons in Disordered Eating?

Kids need to learn about nutrition, right?

Can I Have Another Snack?Laura Thomas, PhD, RNutr

Dear Laura... How can I teach my kids that a 100% cake-and-pringles diet is not OK?

A doozy of a Q. Plus my answer about developmentally attuned nutrition education.

Can I Have Another Snack?Laura Thomas

Look, we all know this is coming sooner-or-later, but it’s still a punch in the face when it does. So how do you handle it? Do you demand a meeting with their teacher? Fuck shit up at the PTA meeting? Or just quietly seethe until you find your moment? Did you pull out a quippy one-liner? Or get into a deep conversation with your kid? Did they seem to brush it off or really internalise the messages they got from school? I’d love for you to share in the comments what BS your kid has come home saying about food and/or bodies. And how you handled it.

Here’s what I did: