I was at Lion Country Safari with my family today and of course being a therapist, I love to look around and see what everybody else is doing.  On one side of me, I had a couple who ordered all fried food for themselves and for their children and on the other side I had a husband and wife order kids meals with fried food.  Both families let their children sit by themselves while they sat at a different table.  It occurred to me how many different parenting styles there are and if one is better than the other?

I believe that we are role models for our children and what we do they do as well.  I try to live a healthy life and reflect that onto my children and wonder if others are thinking how their food choices affect their children’s choices.

I also do not believe in making my children finish their food.  If they want dessert, it makes me believe that they have room for more food so I do make them finish in that case, but over feeding a child is just wrong to me and I think it leads to more problems in the future.  I overheard a mother say to her child today, “You need to sit on your bottom and finish your food or else I have no problem yanking your pants down and spanking you right here.”  Okay, so what is the issue for me here.  It is actually the forcing your child to finish your food.  I was watching this boy and he was full and he was done.  So why was he forced to eat?  I am not sure.  Now, I am sure she was looking at my children who left half of their food and were up from the table throwing out our food and saying, “Gosh, why isn’t she parenting?

So which is right or wrong?  The answer is simple, there is no right or wrong, it is just what you know.  I can only hope that we all continue to try to be better people for our children so they have the best example to follow.  We only know what we have been taught and we are all doing the best we can, but is that good enough?  Should we be doing better?

Let me know your thoughts because I would like feedback on this topic.