[email protected]

In a message dated 8/20/2004 6:06:03 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
[email protected] writes:
You've assumed that because they have control over what they eat they'll
choose junk all the time.
Here's the key!
Our culture seems to assume that any choice a child makes will be a "bad"
one. When I started to believe, to Trust, that my children WILL make good
choices, they STARTED to make good choices.
Talking about different types of foods, modeling healthy eating behaviors,
and helping them choose (rather than choosing for them) will enable them to make
the right choices for themselves.
This may take time for children who have been previously restricted, whether
or not the restrictions were overt or subtle.
Elissa Jill

Life's challenges are not supposed to paralyze you;
They're supposed to help you discover who you are.
~Bernice Johnson Reagon


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[email protected]

In a message dated 8/21/04 6:41:03 AM, Earthmomma67@... writes:

<< You've assumed that because they have control over what they eat they'll
choose junk all the time.
Here's the key!
Our culture seems to assume that any choice a child makes will be a "bad"
one. When I started to believe, to Trust, that my children WILL make good
choices, they STARTED to make good choices. >>

Elissa wrote that, and it's wonderful.

And whether their choices are "good" or not in the beginning, until a parent
takes off that chihuahua harness and those blinders and those rules (off the
child or off themselves, wherever they're strongest), the child cannot possibly
make choices, because there are no choices to make.

Some adults feel bound by their own upbringing and by being observed and
"tested" and judged by their parents or neighbors or whoever, and in such cases
even the parents haven't learned to make choices. Theyre living on automatic,
and working to turn their kids into automatons too.

Thought requires enough space to think.
Freedom requires some time to decide.

Decision making can't begin to happen when all the answers are prescribed and
only a small set of outcomes are "right."

Sandra

Shannon Rizzo

This is a great statement. It's one of those I want to save and flag on my
computer to pop up at me periodically.

Shannon R
(of Heather, Isabella, Luke, Jake)

-----Original Message-----
From: SandraDodd@... [mailto:SandraDodd@...]
Sent: Saturday, August 21, 2004 6:22 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [UnschoolingDiscussion] "choosing" foods

<snip>
Thought requires enough space to think.
Freedom requires some time to decide.

Decision making can't begin to happen when all the answers are prescribed
and
only a small set of outcomes are "right."