The "you" in that statement was me/Sandra.
Other people use other excuses though, for not letting their kids make more choices about what to eat and when and how much.
I married a man who was big. He has lost weight off and on, sometimes because he wasn't well.
I gained weight as I aged. My kids were not "fat," but I would still have loved them, and let them figure out what they wanted to eat, if they had been. Lots of families knew my kids from conferences. The person who used me as a reason to say she couldn't unschool probably had never met any of us. She wanted to discourage others from reading discussions I was in, I think.
If we have tons of ice cream he will eat just ice cream all day!
If I let her eat whatever she wanted she'd eat nothing but oatmeal.
He would eat 6+ apples a day if let to his own devices.
(The mother had stopped him, because he had cavities.)
I do know that my son would eat trash and dead birds if I let him, so in that way I am not permissive. (the mother of a 22-month-old toddler wrote that in 2007)
If I leave them to decide each meal it will go poorly in the sense that they will think, hmm, I want candy.
