I'm hoping that once he knows enough to ask why I can't just buy a thing he wants, he'll also be ready for more sophisticated explanations about treats vs. everyday things.
Yeah, we're having more success with explaining that sort of thing to Img now she's getting older and cleverer (but it doesn't stop her wanting the treats anyway, and at the same time she's getting better at coming up with explanations for why she should have them, or telling one parent that the other parent said yes, etc -- it feels like a bit of an arms race).
On the whole I do try to say things like "you shouldn't have too much of X" and "you need to eat plenty of different things" rather than "X is bad for you", but I don't know how much sense it makes to her.
Are you worried that it might be confusing when Img sees other people choosing to drink the drinks anyway?
Partly that; partly that "X isn't good for you" a) will be interpreted by anybody who hears it as "X will make you fat", and b) is basically the first step on the road to making her neurotic about her diet (which is probably inevitable anyway in this culture) by teaching her that the foods she likes are all "bad" and therefore she's a bad person etc etc.
(Of course normals who think I'm saying "X will make you fat" will just think I'm sensible for trying to make my tubby little child a bit more skinny, because after all what mom wouldn't want that for their little princess?)
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2014-07-07 10:48 pm (UTC)Yeah, we're having more success with explaining that sort of thing to Img now she's getting older and cleverer (but it doesn't stop her wanting the treats anyway, and at the same time she's getting better at coming up with explanations for why she should have them, or telling one parent that the other parent said yes, etc -- it feels like a bit of an arms race).
On the whole I do try to say things like "you shouldn't have too much of X" and "you need to eat plenty of different things" rather than "X is bad for you", but I don't know how much sense it makes to her.
Are you worried that it might be confusing when Img sees other people choosing to drink the drinks anyway?
Partly that; partly that "X isn't good for you" a) will be interpreted by anybody who hears it as "X will make you fat", and b) is basically the first step on the road to making her neurotic about her diet (which is probably inevitable anyway in this culture) by teaching her that the foods she likes are all "bad" and therefore she's a bad person etc etc.
(Of course normals who think I'm saying "X will make you fat" will just think I'm sensible for trying to make my tubby little child a bit more skinny, because after all what mom wouldn't want that for their little princess?)
*despairing flail*