banana face before bed

Feeling Happy!

A blog post from my 13 year old son, James.

This was a very yummy snack we we had before bed.  We started out with a peeled banana.  Then we added peanut butter and honey.  Then we added strawberries for eyes and a nose; the honey made the strawberries extra sweet!

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Now a blog post from mom…

One of the questions I get from my teenage boys is,

“Why don’t we have chips and cookies and
stuff like that for snacking on?”

This is a multi part answer.

Part one: those things like chips and cookies cost money and you guys can eat it all down in one sitting.  It would be cost prohibitive!

Part two:  you eat what is available.  Sometimes it is just a piece of toast made with Mom’s sprouted home made wheat bread and some peanut butter and honey.  Maybe it is just a banana.  But if you are really lucky, you will get to create a smiley face masterpiece as demonstrated here by James.

Now, in mom’s ideal world, this is the snack of choice!  The bonus for me as the mom is that James chose it as well as prepared it for himself.  If all the “snack foods” were available I KNOW with motherly certainty that snack food would be chosen over fruit smothered in pb!  That is just how life works.  We, all of us generally speaking, take the path of least resistance.  So I like to take out the paths of super least resistance so the choices left are good ones.

Teenage boys (and that includes husbands too) will choose to eat what is the very best tasting at any given time.  They don’t go to a steak restaurant and order salad if you know what I mean.  They don’t go to the theater and bring a little baggie of mixed nuts and raisins to snack on… it just doesn’t work that way!

So it is my job, as a mom, to feed them as well as I can, when I can and let go and not stress when it is out of my control.  They are big boys (both are bigger than me now!) and they must choose for themselves; it is a little thing called agency.  It is a good thing.  And it is okay if they use it for things we don’t agree with.  Our best lessons are learned when we choose poorly and experience poor consequences and then get to choose wisely and enjoy good consequences.  (Understanding the difference between good and poor consequences is something they may not fully understand until they are older.  Seriously, how many times have I done something really stupid  before I clued in that I wanted to change my actions?  Ehh- let’s not answer that one!  Oft times it takes some life experience before we can discern and use good judgement.)

By keeping some healthy alternatives in the cupboards for those times they want a snack we can come to a win-win compromise of sorts.  They get to eat a snack (yeah!) and I know it won’t be detrimental (yeah!)

Some of my favorites:  wholesome bread, natural peanut butter, honey, cut vegetables (like carrot sticks),  fruit (both raw and frozen- lots of frozen bananas make for great pb smoothies!), nuts, raisins or other dried fruit, the makings for a healthy sandwich (organic/natural lunch meat, veganaise, mustard, lettuce, and tomatoes), almond milk & organic cold cereal (reserved for special treats- again, cost prohibitive when your son could eat an entire box himself!!!).

Good luck with your teens and healthy cooking!  Please share your experiences with us in the comments below.  Is it different with teenage girls?  Do you have other stresses in trying to feed teenagers?

Thanks for sharing!  We love to hear what you are doing with your families!