“Scenarios” will come up daily as your children begin to grow up: parties, family gatherings, vacations, holidays, and many other celebrations over their lifetime. The message here is to think ahead, plan ahead, and ready your child to make a decent decision, rather than choose foods because they are “starving”!

Parties

If you are unsure of the “meal” to be served at a birthday party, give your child a hearty snack before going to the party. Then, if the choices are chicken wings, French fries, potato chips, and chocolate kisses, she may not be so hungry as to eat all of those unhealthy choices. Encourage water over fruit juice or soda, whenever possible, and never refuse her a small piece of birthday cake!

How would your daughter’s birthday party look with the following choices: pizza or a long sub sandwich (preferably turkey or roast beef), baby carrots, baked Doritos or baked chips, and a birthday cake! Doesn’t sound so terrible, does it? Her friends probably will not notice that the food is a little different.

Sporting Events

One of the things people love to do with their children is make them sports fans—whether your hometown teams are football, baseball, ice hockey, or basketball. The stadium setting has become a little healthier than in years past. Remember to order healthy as their parent, too—you can never give up being the role model.

At the sports stadiums, things have changed quite a bit—grilled chicken sandwiches, wraps, grilled hamburgers, frozen lemonade, peanuts, frozen yogurt, and the like—many of these items are now appearing across the country. Certainly aiming for better choices than the traditional foot-long hot dogs, fries, and nachos, professional stadiums are finally offering options that are more worthwhile and easier on the heart. If you will order the grilled chicken or the wrap, so will your son. Share a frozen lemonade, and the rest of the fun will come from the game itself!

Vacations

Finally, vacations are always a special part of growing up. Who doesn’t remember many of their childhood vacations? The hope is that the activities and the sights are what we cherish, not so much the food!

Once again, moms and dads have to take the lead, and order and choose in a manner in which the children will understand that our behaviors and habits in other destinations are similar to those we abide by at home. This does not mean that you avoid the high-fat wonderful specialty of the area, it means you share the famous strawberry milkshake or the Philly steak sandwich.

Do attempt to keep the structure of meals, having three meals a day, and maybe a snack thrown in for the young ones. Again, restaurant menus today, in most every country, have some sort of healthier selections available. Please choose them.