The Rules of Parenting, 2nd Edition

RULE 34

You’re setting their eating patterns for life

I’m not about to tell you what you should feed your kids. I’ve no idea. You might be a vegan, you might be addicted to doughnuts (I could understand that) or be phobic about alfalfa. It’s up to you to decide how to feed your kids responsibly, and there are lots of healthy diets you could choose as well as the obviously unhealthy ones to avoid (like the doughnuts, sadly).

But whatever the actual food you feed them, the way your children eat will set up habits they will find it very hard to break, so make sure you give them good habits. That is to say, habits that will enable them easily to enjoy a healthy adulthood.

I was brought up in an age when eating habits were very different. My mother’s ...