My family laughs at serving sizes.
My kids laugh.
My husband laughs.
I hear “You call THAT a serving size?!” all the time!
I am the only one in my family that cares about serving sizes. Well, of the family members that still live at home. A couple of my adult kids now care about serving sizes, although they didn’t when they were younger.
You Call THAT a Serving Size?!
I have to say that I agree with my family. Sometimes! Some of the serving sizes are laughable. Like the serving size of a banana is 1/2 of one. Or 3 crackers. Who only eats three crackers with their soup? Of course, if you are having one serving of cheese, which a one ounce serving is about the size of a pair of dice, then 3 crackers would be proportionate.
I have always tried to teach my kids to eat healthy foods. I did let them have sugar snacks, too, I just tried to teach them moderation. That mostly worked until they got old enough to have money. Then they would run to the store and buy lots of junk food. Then proceed to eat it in front of me, “Look! I’m more then the serving size!”. lol They outgrew that, thankfully. They figured out that they would never have money for anything else if that kept spending all their money on junk food. An important lesson to learn for when they start doing their own grocery shopping.
Despite my family laughing at serving sizes, I still try to fight the good fight to try to teach them healthy eating. And that it’s ok to have snacks sometimes, too, in modest portions. Because how sad would life be without baking (& eating!) cookies with your kids, having birthday cake, wedding cake, and mom or grandma’s special dessert?
So if your family is like mine and laughs at serving sizes, just keep reminding them. Telling them, and showing them, what the correct servings sizes are will sink in eventually. Maybe not until they are adults, but you will have set them up for a lifetime of healthy eating.
