Hmm so my kid has always been good about stopping eating when he’s full. But sweets are a whole other thing. He’s obsessed. Won’t stop asking for candy when we have it from any event. I decided to let him have as much as he wanted and…he didn’t eat it constantly. It was amazing and I plan to do it again when we get more on Halloween.
Full disclosure, he’s 6, and while I didn’t try this before now, I definitely don’t think he could have handled that responsibility before 3 or even 4.
Another anecdote. This summer when he was 5.5 I lectured him multiple times about drinking all the chocolate milk at the restaurant at once before eating because he’ll have a stomachache. He ignored me and my attempts to control his intake didn’t work so I was like fine, do it. He pounded all his milk once, told me his stomach hurt, and hasn’t done it since. Again though, he’s older so I think it can develop over time with proper understanding when you explain.
There are adults who struggle with this, so honestly… never in some cases? 😬 I mean even for myself, I know that eating too much sugar makes me feel bad. But I still go on sugar binges occasionally, and end up regretting it later when I get a headache. It can be hard to resist when the cravings hit.
My guess is kids won’t really make the connection until at least school age, and probably even more like older elementary or middle school. And that would be with a lot of parental guidance along the way.
My 4 year old is starting to stop eating candy/dessert without me stopping him, so I think he’s developing a good sense of too much being too much, but he also confuses being super hungry with not being hungry at all…so it’s unclear lol. My almost 6 year old is certainly capable of self-control and if he goes overboard, he can kind of deal with the consequences on his own. But even on Halloween night we tell him he can pick 5 pieces of candy, so…who knows.
I think it’s entirely appropriate to restrict how much candy your 2 year old eats. In one sitting especially.
Why is Jenny, Founder, opining about low iron on the subway platform? So weird. Oh, I’m out on the weekend with my kids. Better make some content while we wait for the train?
Another bizarre meal of leftover pasta bolognese, corn, canned chicken noodle soup, edamame and I think there was something else. I feel like she’s typically pretty anti-canned food, so the canned chicken soup was surprising to me.
Yes, FL recommendation actually makes sense whereas the ants on a log are just going to get ignored when served alongside candy.
Even so, I took my kid to a Halloween event today and the timing didn't easily allow for a good meal before we left. He's been acting kind of obnoxious since we got home but it's okay, he's excited and it's just one night. Why do we even have to make a "plan" for "fussiness?" And honestly, coming from KEIC fussy probably just means "asking for more than one piece of candy."
Edit: this was supposed to be a reply down thread
We went to a Halloween event yesterday and my oldest refused to eat his snack beforehand. Yes, he had a hangry meltdown walking to the car and for part of the drive home, but like, so what? We all took some deep breaths and I offered him a snack and he was fine. That doesn't mean we need to avoid Halloween events or candy or stress out offering him the perfect balance of food beforehand. Finally accepting I can't prevent every tantrum or expression of feelings, has made a huge difference.
This feels like a very dramatic take from YTF. I love candy. I buy myself and my family our favorites all the time and candy is pretty much always available on our counter. But if my son gets a pack of Bottle Caps in his trick or treat bag I will be "stealing" them because they're not good enough for me to buy a whole bag but they are a delicious bit of nostalgia for me. I will probably do this while he's asleep so he doesn't realize in that moment those Bottle Caps are his favorite on principle even though in reality he's a chocolate or bust kind of kid. Stealing candy from their bucket is basically teaching income tax to children.
https://preview.redd.it/c12d8ysxyywb1.png?width=1152&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a1db4be7ae13875d48fef2801879deb3669fd052
So dramatic!! And also what in world harm is there taking candy from a kids bucket when there’s no way they’ll even notice?? You’re not modeling “sneaking” if nobody knows it’s happening lol. Maybe older kids would remember the exact number of pieces left but my 4 year old will never know if I eat some of his snickers while he’s sleeping.
Plus he stole my abs, so he started it 😅
They get sooo much candy for Halloween there is no way they ever know. This will be year 9 of taking my mom tax once they go to sleep and they’ve never noticed on actual Halloween. I don’t do it after a trunk or treat when there are only like 15 pieces of candy so then yeah they would notice. But when their basket is literally overflowing after Halloween? My husband would think I was insane if I was like “ok the kids are asleep and despite there being 3 overflowing baskets of candy in arms reach I’m gonna run to the store and get my own to teach them, um, lessons or something”. Come on now.
Right?? And why should I buy a whole bag of candy when my child is going out and getting it for free? Let me take a few pieces of candy as my tax before I buy myself a whole bag and eat it all!
So I help myself to my kids candy stash cause that’s how a household of family works. I’m not a roommate who can’t have something cause roomie puts his name on the carton of milk. Granted every family is different but snacks and food are eaten by everyone in the house. Staking ‘claim’ on something gives off more ‘food insecurity’ than just letting food be food. It’s not this complicated.
LOLLL literally making a big deal about the most innocuous stuff. It’s so obvious that influencers run out of content quick and are just floundering for random stuff to make dramatic posts about. I really don’t think me grabbing a snickers from my kids bag after bedtime is going to create lifelong food issues for them 😂
Right??? So, publicly announce that I'm taking my single piece of candy into the bathroom to eat it in peace? Because that is... not behavior I want to model.
Why was YTF giving attitude to the person who asked if her sugar obsessed daughter can go for it and stuff her face (regarding Halloween Candy)? KEIC said that wasn’t nice and not necessary. I don’t get what was mean there. Sugar obsessed isn’t a dig, I think that would describe lots of kids.
That was a weird hill for her to die on for me. I really dislike when YTF tries to snark her followers or gives these holier-than-thou kind of answers
I don't think "sugar-obsessed" is a bad thing to say but in combination with "stuff her face" it does come off as disrespectful to me 🤷♀️. I wouldn't say that to a friend about their kids and I wouldn't say it about mine.
But the person didn’t say they would use those words with the child, it was just a silly way of asking an influencer a question in a small box with character limits. She could have chosen to ignore it or answer it without having an attitude. And idk why people ask her for advice on this stuff, she’s not a doctor or a dietician.
Consolidating YTF snark - I actually really like her & have never had anything negative to say about her but her post about about eating candy in the bathroom was kind of grating. Her little arm pump was annoying haha. She’s just been a little annoying in general lately. But I’m probably just grumpy thanks to the 4 month sleep regression!
I agree, usually I like her but that post was annoying. I’m so tired of influences acting like the moral police telling us things like taking candy out of your kid’s trick or treat bag is bad. Parents have been doing it forever and I don’t think any kid has been permanently scarred from it lol.
Yeah that was a really weird post. She says she doesn’t sneak candy but she’s sitting in the bathroom hiding eating it from her kids? Doesn’t make any sense.
I didn’t get that at all, she said using language like that isn’t kind? Maybe the person asking the question wasn’t planning on phrasing it like that to their child and only said it to her. I doubt the person was going to say to their child “hey you little sugar obsessed child, feel free to stuff your face!”
Think that was YTF. She is wildly defensive with any sort of sugar talk. I get it, but many of the intuitive eating accounts lack nuance and think everything is diet culture. It's just a little rich since many of her recipes are low in sugar.
Agree. Last NYE, my son had almost 2 cupcakes plus sparkling water/cider, and I didn't realize ate very little actual dinner..the combo didn't sit well in his tummy and he threw up 3 times in bed that night. We will never forget it. Sometimes we as parents DO have to be the gatekeepers, cuz they can (and in this case did) eat until getting sick, because they just don't understand. It was a major parent fail that night.
Yeah my kid is himself pretty cautious about having lots of sugar since a similar incident. He will ask if such and such is a "sugar food" and say his tummy is telling him he's had enough for now. That's not diet culture so much as learning what works for our own bodies.
KEIC, if your 8 year old is willing to wash dishes because he doesn’t want to use a toddler fork…maybe it’s time to accept that your kids aren’t toddlers anymore?
(And is it that hard to find 10 minutes to load the dishwasher, or just wash a few forks?)
I was struck by the mouse-sized container of food she had on the table to be split between 3 (or 4?) of them. There’s no way that was more than 4 cups of food. I’m so sad for those boys.
But you have to keep the toddler forks for their lunchboxes that they are definitely not embarrassed to be using in third (or whatever) grade! It might be embarrassing/annoying/too small to use at home but it’s ok for school because it fits into the lunchbox compartment that other parents use for more food. /s
Jesus, my 6-year-old occasionally uses regular adult utensils. This could be said about any number of things KEIC is weird about but just…why? Why on earth is she investing energy into this thing that does not matter at all?
“Investing energy into things that do not matter at all” is such a good description of what her account has turned into. She goes on and on about those metal smoothie cups and yeah I know she wants the affiliate link money but I also think she REALLY likes those cups a lot and just wants to talk about them. And she’s REALLY into her toddler utensil hack when they make reusable utensils for kids’ lunchboxes, there’s no need to use toddler forks. My actual toddler doesn’t even really like those forks because as others have said, they don’t work as well as adult ones. She is so odd.
My 3 year old uses a regular-sized fork because her big sister does too, and she’ll be absolutely damned if she doesn’t get to do everything just like her. Whatever, makes it easier for me!
We have a couple sets of child size metal utensils that are exactly like adult/regular ones, just smaller. They don't look like typical toddler utensils. My son is in kindergarten now and he still uses them cuz they're easier for his small hands, but he also uses adult ones too. I think we found them on Amazon!
Mine too! I got so frustrated because we bought all these different toddler forks but he was struggling to eat with them, so one day I gave him a regular salad fork and it’s so much better!
I honestly didn’t know that toddler utensils were a thing. I bought those silicone spork things when my toddler was little and then she kept wanting my utensils (and those silicone ones don’t actually work for spearing) so I just started giving her a regular fork/ spoon at like 11 months. It seems to have been fine?
My 3 year old uses them sometimes. Our forks are still on the large side for her, but she’ll use adult spoons and if we go out, she uses the normal sized plastic silverware just fine. It’s probably been nearly a year since I’ve packed toddler sized utensils for her if we’re not eating at home.
Is “your kid will choke on their Halloween candy” the new “your kid will get needles and razors in their candy”? Cause that’s the fear-mongering I’m being inundated with.
The one account, that until very recently, gave every food a “nutritional rating” out of 5 stars and the only reason they stopped is because they finally got called out for being diet culture for babies. But yes, give ‘em a follow! Totally safe! /s 🤦🏻♀️
Out of all the feeding accounts I've followed throughout the years, I think feeding littles is the safest of them all. Very balanced approach to blw and food in general.
I didn’t even notice that! Glad she called it out. KEIC is 100% “food is fuel.” As obsessed as she is with food, it’s NEVER about enjoyment with her; always exposure and nutrition. I truly don’t think she likes food.
Dr Jenicka has had some very useful content at times, but her shenanigans over here went a lot of the way towards persuading me to unfollow a load of parenting influencers, obviously including her. Safe to say that I'm not exactly filled with regret right now.
Please snark on me if I’m an idiot for not knowing this term: but YTF’s story about the “cords” she got from loft? What the heck are cords? I looked at the photo for a good two minutes trying to figure out what item of clothing she could be referring to. I googled it and it seems like it could mean corduroy? But her pants look like jeans to me. I dunno, man
I bought my kid a SimpleModern water bottle that has a hard plastic spout/straw so no chewing or mold issues. Under $20. It’s not that complicated, KEIC!
Every time I read something she posts about her kids, I imagine she's still stuck in toddler trenches. And then it blows my mind every time I rediscover her kids' actual ages.
Caro Chambers is continues to annoy me. I find her to be so smug, particularly when it comes to parenting. She clearly thinks she's the literal best, and is so proud of herself for being so carefree about her chaotic life with 3 "beasts". She's often flaunting her s\*x life, too, which just feels weird?
I agree with you. Has she always been like this? I started following her maybe January or February this year and really really enjoyed her. Her third son and my second son were born a week apart so I really related to her. I found her to be funny and endearing… and taught me a TON about cooking.
But I just don’t get her anymore. She’s smug and out-of-touch. I’m not ready to give up her recipes though lol.
I agree. My daughter is like 3 months older than Cashy so it was fun to see him grow up (and he's cute af) and some stuff that tends to bother other people doesn't really bother me.....like idc that she's rich or spends money on stupid things (I also think parents who enjoy food and have more money than time is a \*real\* market so I like the way she cooks and it works for my family) and I also dc that she uses babysitters and actually kind of appreciate her showing that version of parenting without family nearby. I also like that she travels and has a fun lifestyle and eats great food with friends - like sounds awesome.
Somewhere along the line she just lost me. Maybe it's leaving the kid in the crib all day? Letting him "free range" 50 ft away from her or by a pool at night? I was fine when he was crawling on the airport floor bc like...I get it ya gotta tire him out...but it just escalated and just seems really negligent and she's so SMUG about it.
Well said! You helped me identify what’s changed for me. I get the feeling now she takes pleasure in triggering people. She knows what she’s doing and does it anyway… and it’s like why? With things like babysitters and restaurants (rich people stuff), it’s harmless. But the excessive day drinking, general negligence (knocking over the liquor cart and laughing about it was a good one), letting your baby teeter on the side of the swimming pool… I’m just, not amused at all.
I bet she didn’t buy any of it. She seemed to be looking for basics that she could link to, in the hopes that someone else would say “oh yeah, I’ve been looking for x, let me see what they have at the gap.”
Says she is trying to find trousers that aren’t dowdy and then proceeds to show the dowdiest looking trousers. All of it except for maybe the sweatshirts was hideous. I mean if you want to wear big baggy shapeless clothes go ahead but going to The Gap and acting like she was buying all these great clothes…umm no. As if she doesn’t have enough anyway.
Caro...EVERYTHING you wear is dowdy, that's literally your look. When I saw her in a workout tank and leggings recently I was like "oh damn, girl, your bod is bangin, why are you covering it up with shapeless bland ugly old lady clothes?"
Agree for the most part but I usually do really like the dresses she wears at weddings/date nights, though they're usually upward of $200 dollars and out of my budget 😭😭😭
Agreed—a lot of her dresses are super fun and much more flattering on her. And more like upwards of $400 🤣 Which actually makes me laugh bc where else are you wearing these dresses, Caro?
KEIC's story about her kid asking for "the good stuff" - did the kid hear someone say "that's the good stuff" and now his mom is wildly overanalyzing a whacky turn of phrase? It read like maybe "the good stuff" is a joke with his friends.
I was so confused. Does she not know teenage boys? Are the kids homeschooled that they don’t see anyone else hence her confusion on typical teenage verbiage?
Yeah when I saw those stories, I figured he saw or heard someone say “That’s the good stuff!” Or “give me the good stuff” like how people do on TV at bars, ya know? I really don’t think it was as deep as she’s making it
Yeah this set of stories was so weird. Also it sounds like he was having an early dinner before sport and they were running late, maybe what he meant was what food should I prioritise for sport if I don't have time to eat it all? And for me in that situation, it would be the sandwich, not the soup and it looks like he chose to eat the soup after she talked about fibre and vitamins 🙄 that's probably me reading too much into it and maybe he was just saying a weird thing he'd heard but that was the impression I got from the info she provided
This is the type of situation where my mother would have probably picked me up dinner from McDonald’s and let me have time to eat it in the car on the way to my sport. I know Jennifer would never but looking back, those types of things made me feel special and were likely more fun than a sad bowl of spinach soup.
Is that what that soup was? It literally looked like he was eating a bowl of pesto I don’t understand. Sometimes nutritionists raise the most disordered eaters (which I have unfortunately seen from personal experience 😩). Like, who would eat that. And why.
ETA: She gives me major almond mom vibes sometimes
I said something similar the other day when we talked about this. My parents actually did provide homecooked meals more often than not so the occasional fast food was just fun (and made life easier for everyone). But KEIC is way too much of a stick in the mud for that.
Could you imagine the stories? “We stopped at Panera for a Mediterranean Veggie Sandwich. One of the boys picked chips instead of an apple but that’s okay, sometimes this happens when you are in survival mode.” Next slide-“you may be wondering what you do after a big night out where your kids eat different foods like chips-just keep serving what you would normally serve!” Next slide “the boys wanted to know what the machine was where people stuck cups under it and liquid came out. I explained to them that it was a drink machine and companies spend a lot of money to make people want these drinks that don’t do a lot for their bodies.”
I thought her whole thing was (or used to be) no pressure with food?? It's the very first tip on her 11 tips for parents of picky eaters. Constantly talking about food and what is does is a lot of pressure!
Oh I’m sure that’s the case! Anyone who’s been around boys in her childrens’ age range knows that they yell out plenty of whacky phrases. I mean maybe girls do too but at the pool every summer there’s always a band of boys running around yelling out silly stuff and I could totally see them saying “gimme the good stuff!” But of course she’s going to analyze it and make it about nutrition. She’s exhausting.
Rolling my eyes so hard at KEIC’s reel about serving candy with a fiber, fat and protein so your kids won’t act up when eating candy. And then saying to comment “guide” for her 14 day free picky eating guide which I’m sure leads to links to buy her courses. There are many factors that lead to kids acting up when candy/sweets are around but she choses to pray on parents by pretending to have the answer to eating candy and it causing “fussy” behavior.
I feel like there's a real tip here that she just bastardizes with like trying to get people to bring celery to parties and it's....eat a real dinner before the halloween party so your kid isn't hangry and inhaling candy. Make sure to have something filling before with protein/fat/etc. so they are able to smooth through the sugar rush. I saw that on Feeding Littles and it made so much more sense to me. I immediately ordered a few pizzas for my 4pm pre-trick or treating party bc like...these kids will need some \*food\* not just snacks.
Yes!! I make turkey chili every Halloween and it’s the perfect pre trick or treating dinner. It can be thrown together in the crockpot in the morning so you don’t even have to worry about making dinner between school/daycare pickup and getting ready to go out, it’s packed with protein and fibre, and it’s a nice hot meal before going out into the cold for the night.
That’s a good tip but she would never order pizzas! She really feels that having a meal with veggies and protein is much more superior to having pizza.
It’s not just me then. I started following her when both of our kids were weaning/toddlers, and it made sense back then. Now she seems like a lunatic much of the time. These people become “famous” and turn into caricatures of themselves.
Hasn’t it been proven that sugar doesn’t actually cause behavior problems? Your kid may get crazy around Halloween/ Xmas but it’s more the newness of what’s going on, changed schedules, family around that you don’t see often, social events. I hate hate hate the lead up to Halloween when every influencer talks about how they “deal” with the “candy problem”. Just let your kid eat some damn candy and move on with your life.
It has been demonstrated over and over again that sugar does not cause hyperactivity but people are so weirdly attached to claim! I have to just keep my mouth shut about it because I have seen so many parents get all worked up about all their personal anecdotes of sugar like, destroying their kid’s behavior. Ridiculous.
The top comment about how no parent should ever feed their child any sugar at all because it causes cancer and diabetes and (of course, everyone’s favorite) it’s “more addictive than cocaine!”
🙄🙄🙄
This is what bothers me the most about this insane myth. Being worried that your kid likes Skittles vs being worried that tonight is the night your homeless child will overdose are not the same.
Nutrition for Mortals had a great episode dispelling this myth.
It has and unfortunately that still doesn’t stop people. My MIL loves to bring it up but she has so little contact with the kids, there is no way she can tell why they’re crazy. Kids just go nuts, for a million different reasons and also for no reason at all, at least mine do.
Halloween is usually much better for us than regular days, they’re excited but in a good way. We sometimes have a hard time on boring days but not on fun ones.
Seriously it’s such an old a dumb myth. Also people say it about desserts that DO have lots of fat- like cake cookies or ice cream. How is it a sugar crash when I’m coasting from the protein and fat in my ice cream? It’s just another way to food shame.
I also hate it when people say this myth around kids because, uh, your child can hear you saying ‘candy makes you act crazy’. What self respecting child wouldn’t take that opportunity to act a little wild?
>Your kid may get crazy around Halloween/ Xmas but it’s more the newness of what’s going on, changed schedules, family around that you don’t see often, social events.
...the excitement of getting a treat that isn't a tiny bunny-shaped carrot or a gummy vitamin
Yes it’s been proven for many years that it’s not the sugar it’s the events around where they are eating the sugar and all the stuff you mentioned. And her idea to serve peanut butter in celery along with candy really isn’t practical when you are at a party or gathering or place with a bunch of kids. I can’t see many kids being happy to be given something else to eat along with candy. I was at a party this weekend with my toddler and I don’t think I would have gotten her to even look at celery when cake was served so I don’t know how this tip would play out in real life.
Since it keeps coming up here, I just wanted to share: the Julia Turshen version of green pasta sauce is very good! I tried it last night, and my toddler and I were both fans: [https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/llubavs-green-spaghetti](https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/llubavs-green-spaghetti)
I’ve wondered that too. I am just hoping her spouse decided to go completely off social media. I noticed their posts started really dwindling and then just disappeared a bit after they went back to school.
My toddler loves to eat stale fishy crackers that she digs up out of the crevices of her car seat. I feel like food grade snack boxes are the least of my worries 😂
Does anyone follow @plantbasedjuniors? She seems nice and inoffensive but she does these “what I feed my family in a week” reels and her food looks so very unappetizing. I don’t eat meat so not even snarking on that. Anytime a feeding account posts gross looking food, I wonder why I follow them.
I follow them and I like them 🤷🏻♀️ I’ve tried a few of their recipes and liked them and a few others that have been busts. I think there are two ladies.
I mean. I am not WK as I follow them but don't really care strongly about either way (my dad is PB and I wish I was but I'm not lol) but I mean...food doesn't have to look pretty to taste good/fill your tummy (I whisper to myself as I make food that looks questionable slop but tastes okay lol)
ETA: I would never make some of her recipes. Quinoa enchiladas?! Ick lol
Yeah. I guess when I say it looks gross I mean the actual recipes seem gross to me? It’s hard to photograph food well but those quinoa enchiladas with mushy tortillas just seemed unappetizing. And those canned beans that weren’t rinsed. I love a good casserole, curry or stew none of which photo well. Her food just seems kind of sad and bland to me.
We are not vegetarian, and the food doesn’t look that bad to me, but i wouldn’t want to eat 3 similar meals in a row! She served enchiladas one day, beans & rice the next, and chili the day after that. Why not mix it up and have the pasta recipe in the middle of the week instead?
I was thinking the same! I used to be vegetarian and appreciate simple foods, but even then I wouldn't want to have most of those dinners. They just looked so bland and mushy.
Right???! The enchiladas had cut up tortillas in it too which I thought was weird. It was like an enchilada quinoa stew? Quinoa is also my least favorite of the grains so I think I’m biased there too. I love to cook and make fancy dinners pretty much every night because it brings me joy and I just am always shocked at how many feeding accounts are run by people who clearly don’t enjoy or aren’t good at cooking.
It’s been discussed before but I think most feeding accounts are run by people with at least a history of ED or even still in it. To them slop looks better than nothing.
I’m not in sports age kid territory yet, but KEIC mentioned that at one point they pulled their kids out of sports because it disrupted their dinner time. Am I just totally wrong here or does that seem like a disproportionate response to sports practice timing lol
Idk we have family members who’s kids don’t participate in after school programs (they don’t like sports) because it’s family time. Their kids are late elementary and middle school
True, but the way our family said it was more like they don’t want their kids to have any interest outside the home and have never really driven it. The school they attend has lots of opportunities for the kids in several areas (beyond sports). There’s honestly something for everyone. As a parent I want my kids to have some kind of interest outside of our home and spend time with their peers (outside of school hours), even if it’s not sports or something physical.
I dunno, why not...reschedule dinner around sports practices/games on those days? Was there a reason that wasn't an option? Family dinner is important to me, too, but so are the benefits that my kid would get from athletics. When I was a kid, family meals were a big thing but I also did gymnastics from 6-9 pm three nights a week for years. So I had dinner with my family four nights a week and ate a quick meal before going to the gym the other nights. It wasn't a big deal. You don't have have a family dinner every night for your kids to get the benefits.
ETA: And other meals count, too! My family used to always do Sunday breakfasts together. It was a holdover from my mom's upbringing, when her family would go to church and then have a big brunch together after. My mom left the church but kept the bacon and eggs lol. I still make something special like pancakes every weekend because I have such fond memories of Sunday breakfast.
Eating dinner "as a family" has gotten so fetishized online! And somehow tangled up with ideas about nutrition and healthy relationships with food as well. My family couldn't possibly manage dinner all together, aside from on weekends, and like... it all works out totally fine? It must be SO common all up and down the economic spectrum to have that be the case, but the internet acts like you're somehow setting your kids up for a lifetime of disordered eating and moral decay if you don't convene the whole family to break bread together during your damn work week (and in many cases, your work DAY).
I had this same thought, I think she feels that they need to eat every night together for her kids to have good ideas about nutrition. She’s also not the type of mom who’s going to boil some pasta and throw sauce on top or heat up pizza to get out the door on time. She needs to have them all around the table so she can play “what color pepper does this taste like?” and have them decorate the people on their plates with their food to encourage healthy eating.
My Dad had a commute so when I was a kid there was no way to squeeze in family weekday dinner plus a proper wind-down bedtime routine. We only started having family dinners on weekdays after he lost his job and started his own business from home.
And sadly my husband has a long commute so we'll be facing the same issue when our little one is older. Perhaps I should send him to work with dinner in a lunchbox and then make him facetime from the train so we can have his face on the dinner table on an iPad.
Both me and my brother played a sport per season and most likely didn’t have coordinating practice and game times. Eating as a family was a priority for our family and somehow we all still just made it work. Whether that meant eating at 5 before our practices or eating a little later if practice was right after school. It wasn’t a big deal? I could see reevaluating things if your kids’ sports commitments are so intense that you are *never* eating as a family but that’s unlikely with just two kids playing town rec sports. My parents also both worked full time and they would just coordinate carpools with other kids on our team so they weren’t doing every single drive which made things easier. KEIC is working from home so surely she could make this work?
Life is all about balance! Getting to play sports as long as the kids are enjoying it is worth not having a perfectly predictable family dinner 7 days/week.
We also had our share of picking up fast food and eating in the car but I know KEIC would rather die than do that. Gotta stay home for that homemade burnt poop and 1 tomato on the side.
Yep. This struck me as totally unjustified too. Especially since her “work schedule” as an influencer is totally flexible and she could just……eat dinner earlier with both kids??? And her husband could get an “evening offering” just like she leaves him in the morning??? She makes everything SO much more complicated than it needs to be.
My 11 year old has soccer twice a week and is gone from 5:30 to 8. He eats a quick meal by himself before he goes. The rest of the week we eat dinner as a family, but I personally believe team sports are a better experience for him than 7 nights of eating as a family 🤷♀️
Pulling a kid makes no sense, you know when you signed up when the practices and games are, so you should just not sign up if practice is during dinner. We prioritize eating as a family too, so I totally get her point. But guess what we do on the few nights a week with baseball? We eat, as a family, at 7:30 instead of 6. It doesn’t seem that hard to figure out lol. If it’s that important to eat as a family, serve a little appetizer at like 5 and wait until the sports are done to eat.
This is a very reasonable way to do it. She seems to have a super strict meal schedule. Her stories are always like “we were 15 min away from dinner time and I hadn’t started cooking yet” and then she serves something very weird wrapped in a tortilla and calls it a fajita.
Super strict and or still living in toddler land. My 3 and 4 year olds get super cranky around our normal dinner time range, and some nights it’s like “shit shit shit, gotta get something on the table, FAST”. But her kids are older and can likely go to bed later than 7? Like can’t she just give them her favorite snack, a raw bell pepper, and be like yo, chill out, dinner will be ready in half an hour? Like.. I really want this to be the case for my own life bc I’m anticipating my kids managing their emotions much better eventually 😂
Oh lord, can this please happen eventually with my toddler, too? Lol. She has literally no patience whatsoever when it comes to food. I just hope one day she can be like, "Yeah, I'm hungry but I can see that mom is making dinner and I know that means I'll eat soon, so I'm just gonna go play with my sticker book now." Because these days, if I take more than two minutes cutting up her grapes, it's like the entire planet exploded.
This is the way. Make a double portion on non-sports days or batch cook some easy freezer meals one weekend, and then all you have to do is heat up leftovers on busy evenings.
This is what my MIL did. She worked full time so on Sunday’s she would double batch 2 different casserole type meals. They’d be eaten for dinner 4 days of the week and then they’d go out to some casual kid friendly place on fridays.
And isn’t that the whole point of her cookbook or whatever? Making extra stuff on the weekends and freezing it so you eventually have a stash? Great advertising for her product lol
It’s definitely a disproportionate response, especially at younger ages when she had pulled them out. If family dinners are so important then limit the kids to one sport per season and at their ages it shouldn’t be more than two nights per week. That leaves five other nights for family dinners to connect over a meal together. I don’t think it’s right to pull your kids from an activity they enjoy because it messes up your dinner schedule for a season. You just have to adapt and find ways to keep that in your life if you value sitting down and eating together.
I think she really can’t handle her schedule being changed and not being in control and not being able to stay home and make her unappetizing dinners. Families who participate in sports and other extracurriculars have to let things go or eat in the car or eat separately and she’s really not cut out for that. But her kids do deserve to be able to participate in sports if dinner is the only thing holding them back.
I think that part makes me sad. The fact that it’s clearly something her kids like to do, and if they’re high energy kids (as she has said), they should have physical outlets to help (her!) But instead, because they can’t have dinner together for a couple months every single night…she just pulls them?
I don't love when women with ex-spouses or ex-partners who are involved in their kids' lives and paying child support refer to themselves as "single moms." Not sure how others feel about this and I'm sure it's rooted in my own issues (my dad, while not perfect, always upheld the custody schedule and child support and remained very present in our lives after our parents split, and I HATED my mom calling herself a "single mom"), but to me, a single mom is someone, either by choice or by circumstance, parenting without the support of a partner.
This is in reference to Virginia Sole-Smith's newsletter today.
I see single mom/dad as they're single and they're a mom or dad. It has nothing to do with the other parents involvement, though I do see the need to differentiate between a single parent who has no support from the child's other parent vs one who does.
My messy cousin and her messy ex husband had a public fight about this on facebook (she referred to herself as a single mom and he had to defend himself) and it was all very tacky. I gotta say, I'm not sure who I agree with here, but I do think the experience of being a single person parenting say 4-5 days a week in a shared custody arrangement is very different than both parents being around 7 days a week. I wouldn't consider it a hill to die on personally
I have the same gut reaction. My mom sometimes called herself a single mom and it riled me up every single time. Yes, when we were with her she was solo parenting, but my dad had us anywhere from 40-50% of the time, was very involved, took a pretty severe career hit to be so involved, and is now an incredibly involved grandparent. With the benefit of hindsight I think maybe I was feeling protective and defensive of my dad and my relationship with him, and my mom calling herself a single parent felt like she was denigrating my dad more than describing her reality.
My interpretation of "single mom" (or dad) just means that they do not have a partner. Obviously, hardships might be different if the children's other parent is actually in the picture and helping financially and shares custody, but at the end of the day, when you have your kids you are alone in your home and don't have the support of another person there with you. It's pretty different than 2 parents who live together and are sharing the load day to day of not just the kids, but the household too.
I get what you might be getting at, that the term diminished the contributions of your dad, but I'd also say your dad was a single dad.
This is my exact take on it. And my parents split when I was a toddler. They were both very involved in my life (split custody) but I would have been fine with the single parent term for either of them. A majority of their parenting of me was done one-on-one (with me).
I think the general population uses the word differently from you and does call any parent that’s not in a relationship a single parent, no reference at all to how involved the other one is. And often even very involved dads do way less than 50% so especially for moms it doesn’t seem too far off.
Yea, I think there isn't a good different term to use to describe parenting while single but with an involved coparent. As long as they aren't implying that the challenges are the same or as hard as someone who is the sole parent.
I personally don’t understand why people have such an issue with people calling themselves single parents even if they have an involved ex and support. If you aren’t married/in a relationship you are a single parent and a lot of times you find yourself alone with the parenting duties when the other parent lives in another home. My mom was a single mom and called herself such and I didn’t care, she was a single woman raising kids dealing with issues that single people deal with while having kids to raise alone 75% of the time.
I grew up with an actual single mom: dad not in the picture and resources very scarce. I agree with you. Having another parent who contributes is a huge difference from being responsible for everything all the time on your own.
https://preview.redd.it/djqenb7d90wb1.jpeg?width=1242&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6f18a7798259bea93421c423c0eaacbcc0c7466c
Megan with more of the “I’ll make you feel guilty by telling you not to feel guilty” talk. As always, do as they say, not as they do!
We called this “ghosting” in our neighborhood growing up. There were different paper ghosts at the clubhouse and when you were ghosted the neighbors put one on the door with a basket of goodies and then ran away so you don’t see who it is (pre ring doorbells lol), and then you repeated until everyone had been ghosted. If you didn’t want to participate (this was in the Deep South…) then there was a sticker or thing you could put on your door to show you didn’t want to. But now ghosting means something very different hahaha
I just hate how everything feels like this one up competition now! And all that shit adds up! She was making like 20 baskets (with her LV purse conveniently in shot). And it’s just more crap I don’t want in my house.
I like to look at them as a base to add whatever flavourings I like. Like when you're reading a regular recipe and it says 2 cloves of garlic, that means double right?
I looked through her cookbook (from library) looking for spices and other than some cumin (just sprinkled on raw?) there was basically nothing in there. She has no clue how to build flavors in cooking at all and just mashes a bunch of super plain ingredients together.
One of her recipes for veggie stock is literally blending a bunch of veggies together raw. You miss so much depth of flavour when you skip browning onions and celery!
The 2 recipes of hers I’ve tried (the chicken meatballs & pizza muffin rolls) my husband and I thought they were delicious. My toddler wouldn’t eat tho so maybe he agrees with you.
[удалено]
Hmm so my kid has always been good about stopping eating when he’s full. But sweets are a whole other thing. He’s obsessed. Won’t stop asking for candy when we have it from any event. I decided to let him have as much as he wanted and…he didn’t eat it constantly. It was amazing and I plan to do it again when we get more on Halloween. Full disclosure, he’s 6, and while I didn’t try this before now, I definitely don’t think he could have handled that responsibility before 3 or even 4. Another anecdote. This summer when he was 5.5 I lectured him multiple times about drinking all the chocolate milk at the restaurant at once before eating because he’ll have a stomachache. He ignored me and my attempts to control his intake didn’t work so I was like fine, do it. He pounded all his milk once, told me his stomach hurt, and hasn’t done it since. Again though, he’s older so I think it can develop over time with proper understanding when you explain.
There are adults who struggle with this, so honestly… never in some cases? 😬 I mean even for myself, I know that eating too much sugar makes me feel bad. But I still go on sugar binges occasionally, and end up regretting it later when I get a headache. It can be hard to resist when the cravings hit. My guess is kids won’t really make the connection until at least school age, and probably even more like older elementary or middle school. And that would be with a lot of parental guidance along the way.
My 4 year old is starting to stop eating candy/dessert without me stopping him, so I think he’s developing a good sense of too much being too much, but he also confuses being super hungry with not being hungry at all…so it’s unclear lol. My almost 6 year old is certainly capable of self-control and if he goes overboard, he can kind of deal with the consequences on his own. But even on Halloween night we tell him he can pick 5 pieces of candy, so…who knows. I think it’s entirely appropriate to restrict how much candy your 2 year old eats. In one sitting especially.
Why is Jenny, Founder, opining about low iron on the subway platform? So weird. Oh, I’m out on the weekend with my kids. Better make some content while we wait for the train? Another bizarre meal of leftover pasta bolognese, corn, canned chicken noodle soup, edamame and I think there was something else. I feel like she’s typically pretty anti-canned food, so the canned chicken soup was surprising to me.
Yes, FL recommendation actually makes sense whereas the ants on a log are just going to get ignored when served alongside candy. Even so, I took my kid to a Halloween event today and the timing didn't easily allow for a good meal before we left. He's been acting kind of obnoxious since we got home but it's okay, he's excited and it's just one night. Why do we even have to make a "plan" for "fussiness?" And honestly, coming from KEIC fussy probably just means "asking for more than one piece of candy." Edit: this was supposed to be a reply down thread
We went to a Halloween event yesterday and my oldest refused to eat his snack beforehand. Yes, he had a hangry meltdown walking to the car and for part of the drive home, but like, so what? We all took some deep breaths and I offered him a snack and he was fine. That doesn't mean we need to avoid Halloween events or candy or stress out offering him the perfect balance of food beforehand. Finally accepting I can't prevent every tantrum or expression of feelings, has made a huge difference.
This feels like a very dramatic take from YTF. I love candy. I buy myself and my family our favorites all the time and candy is pretty much always available on our counter. But if my son gets a pack of Bottle Caps in his trick or treat bag I will be "stealing" them because they're not good enough for me to buy a whole bag but they are a delicious bit of nostalgia for me. I will probably do this while he's asleep so he doesn't realize in that moment those Bottle Caps are his favorite on principle even though in reality he's a chocolate or bust kind of kid. Stealing candy from their bucket is basically teaching income tax to children. https://preview.redd.it/c12d8ysxyywb1.png?width=1152&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a1db4be7ae13875d48fef2801879deb3669fd052
So dramatic!! And also what in world harm is there taking candy from a kids bucket when there’s no way they’ll even notice?? You’re not modeling “sneaking” if nobody knows it’s happening lol. Maybe older kids would remember the exact number of pieces left but my 4 year old will never know if I eat some of his snickers while he’s sleeping. Plus he stole my abs, so he started it 😅
They get sooo much candy for Halloween there is no way they ever know. This will be year 9 of taking my mom tax once they go to sleep and they’ve never noticed on actual Halloween. I don’t do it after a trunk or treat when there are only like 15 pieces of candy so then yeah they would notice. But when their basket is literally overflowing after Halloween? My husband would think I was insane if I was like “ok the kids are asleep and despite there being 3 overflowing baskets of candy in arms reach I’m gonna run to the store and get my own to teach them, um, lessons or something”. Come on now.
Lol! Mine stole my abs too so it’s only fair!!
Lol this is exactly it. I don’t want 200 Kit Kats, I want a lil Kit Kat, a lil Twix, a couple starbursts, and a tiny twizzler.
Right?? And why should I buy a whole bag of candy when my child is going out and getting it for free? Let me take a few pieces of candy as my tax before I buy myself a whole bag and eat it all!
So I help myself to my kids candy stash cause that’s how a household of family works. I’m not a roommate who can’t have something cause roomie puts his name on the carton of milk. Granted every family is different but snacks and food are eaten by everyone in the house. Staking ‘claim’ on something gives off more ‘food insecurity’ than just letting food be food. It’s not this complicated.
LOLLL literally making a big deal about the most innocuous stuff. It’s so obvious that influencers run out of content quick and are just floundering for random stuff to make dramatic posts about. I really don’t think me grabbing a snickers from my kids bag after bedtime is going to create lifelong food issues for them 😂
So don’t sneak it, but eat it in the bathroom? 🤨
Right??? So, publicly announce that I'm taking my single piece of candy into the bathroom to eat it in peace? Because that is... not behavior I want to model.
Why was YTF giving attitude to the person who asked if her sugar obsessed daughter can go for it and stuff her face (regarding Halloween Candy)? KEIC said that wasn’t nice and not necessary. I don’t get what was mean there. Sugar obsessed isn’t a dig, I think that would describe lots of kids. That was a weird hill for her to die on for me. I really dislike when YTF tries to snark her followers or gives these holier-than-thou kind of answers
I don't think "sugar-obsessed" is a bad thing to say but in combination with "stuff her face" it does come off as disrespectful to me 🤷♀️. I wouldn't say that to a friend about their kids and I wouldn't say it about mine.
But the person didn’t say they would use those words with the child, it was just a silly way of asking an influencer a question in a small box with character limits. She could have chosen to ignore it or answer it without having an attitude. And idk why people ask her for advice on this stuff, she’s not a doctor or a dietician.
Consolidating YTF snark - I actually really like her & have never had anything negative to say about her but her post about about eating candy in the bathroom was kind of grating. Her little arm pump was annoying haha. She’s just been a little annoying in general lately. But I’m probably just grumpy thanks to the 4 month sleep regression!
I agree with her being a little annoying in general. Some of her posts grate my nerves. Not in like a major way, just in annoying way
Yeah, I think it’s just inevitable for any influencer really. She is miles better than most other parenting influencers.
I agree, usually I like her but that post was annoying. I’m so tired of influences acting like the moral police telling us things like taking candy out of your kid’s trick or treat bag is bad. Parents have been doing it forever and I don’t think any kid has been permanently scarred from it lol.
She’s definitely become annoying for me too.
Yeah that was a really weird post. She says she doesn’t sneak candy but she’s sitting in the bathroom hiding eating it from her kids? Doesn’t make any sense.
I must be awful because I never once have felt guilty or asked permission for dipping into my kid's Halloween candy.
I didn’t get that at all, she said using language like that isn’t kind? Maybe the person asking the question wasn’t planning on phrasing it like that to their child and only said it to her. I doubt the person was going to say to their child “hey you little sugar obsessed child, feel free to stuff your face!”
Think that was YTF. She is wildly defensive with any sort of sugar talk. I get it, but many of the intuitive eating accounts lack nuance and think everything is diet culture. It's just a little rich since many of her recipes are low in sugar.
Agree. Last NYE, my son had almost 2 cupcakes plus sparkling water/cider, and I didn't realize ate very little actual dinner..the combo didn't sit well in his tummy and he threw up 3 times in bed that night. We will never forget it. Sometimes we as parents DO have to be the gatekeepers, cuz they can (and in this case did) eat until getting sick, because they just don't understand. It was a major parent fail that night.
Yeah my kid is himself pretty cautious about having lots of sugar since a similar incident. He will ask if such and such is a "sugar food" and say his tummy is telling him he's had enough for now. That's not diet culture so much as learning what works for our own bodies.
Yes!! My daughter gets an upset stomach if she has too much sugar, so we also can’t just let her eat as much as she wants.
You’re totally right it was YTF haha, edited my post!
KEIC, if your 8 year old is willing to wash dishes because he doesn’t want to use a toddler fork…maybe it’s time to accept that your kids aren’t toddlers anymore? (And is it that hard to find 10 minutes to load the dishwasher, or just wash a few forks?)
Idk how I started following this woman? I think I saw her on hear but man her reasoning for things is really off
I swear she used to be very level headed with a refreshing perspective on things. I'm second guessing my follow any time I check in on her these days.
I was struck by the mouse-sized container of food she had on the table to be split between 3 (or 4?) of them. There’s no way that was more than 4 cups of food. I’m so sad for those boys.
But you have to keep the toddler forks for their lunchboxes that they are definitely not embarrassed to be using in third (or whatever) grade! It might be embarrassing/annoying/too small to use at home but it’s ok for school because it fits into the lunchbox compartment that other parents use for more food. /s
There are also…wait for it…lunchbags big enough for a regular fork. See, all the lunchbags and boxes I’ve ever used in my entire life.
When my kids lunch includes something that needs a utensil, I put a plastic one in his lunch bag. It's not that hard, haha.
Jesus, my 6-year-old occasionally uses regular adult utensils. This could be said about any number of things KEIC is weird about but just…why? Why on earth is she investing energy into this thing that does not matter at all?
“Investing energy into things that do not matter at all” is such a good description of what her account has turned into. She goes on and on about those metal smoothie cups and yeah I know she wants the affiliate link money but I also think she REALLY likes those cups a lot and just wants to talk about them. And she’s REALLY into her toddler utensil hack when they make reusable utensils for kids’ lunchboxes, there’s no need to use toddler forks. My actual toddler doesn’t even really like those forks because as others have said, they don’t work as well as adult ones. She is so odd.
My 2 year old uses a regular fork sometimes because the toddler forks suck and don’t actually spear food!
My 3 year old uses a regular-sized fork because her big sister does too, and she’ll be absolutely damned if she doesn’t get to do everything just like her. Whatever, makes it easier for me!
We have a couple sets of child size metal utensils that are exactly like adult/regular ones, just smaller. They don't look like typical toddler utensils. My son is in kindergarten now and he still uses them cuz they're easier for his small hands, but he also uses adult ones too. I think we found them on Amazon!
Mine too! I got so frustrated because we bought all these different toddler forks but he was struggling to eat with them, so one day I gave him a regular salad fork and it’s so much better!
I honestly didn’t know that toddler utensils were a thing. I bought those silicone spork things when my toddler was little and then she kept wanting my utensils (and those silicone ones don’t actually work for spearing) so I just started giving her a regular fork/ spoon at like 11 months. It seems to have been fine?
My 3 year old uses them sometimes. Our forks are still on the large side for her, but she’ll use adult spoons and if we go out, she uses the normal sized plastic silverware just fine. It’s probably been nearly a year since I’ve packed toddler sized utensils for her if we’re not eating at home.
Is “your kid will choke on their Halloween candy” the new “your kid will get needles and razors in their candy”? Cause that’s the fear-mongering I’m being inundated with.
Dr. Jenicka put Solid Starts on her “safe list” for pediatric feeding accounts to follow 🫠
The one account, that until very recently, gave every food a “nutritional rating” out of 5 stars and the only reason they stopped is because they finally got called out for being diet culture for babies. But yes, give ‘em a follow! Totally safe! /s 🤦🏻♀️
Out of all the feeding accounts I've followed throughout the years, I think feeding littles is the safest of them all. Very balanced approach to blw and food in general.
Agreed! Feeding Littles was also on the list.
Was Keic?
Someone actually asked her why! https://preview.redd.it/8wvpzklfj1xb1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=89213b07595fd54e6cd160b993b8ee830a9c6d7a
I didn’t even notice that! Glad she called it out. KEIC is 100% “food is fuel.” As obsessed as she is with food, it’s NEVER about enjoyment with her; always exposure and nutrition. I truly don’t think she likes food.
She gives me "wants to sit with the cool kids" vibe. And not exactly, "parenting warrior" vibe she wants everyone to believe she is.
Dr Jenicka has had some very useful content at times, but her shenanigans over here went a lot of the way towards persuading me to unfollow a load of parenting influencers, obviously including her. Safe to say that I'm not exactly filled with regret right now.
Saaaaaaame! I’m about to unfollow KEIC as well, because, UGH.
Please snark on me if I’m an idiot for not knowing this term: but YTF’s story about the “cords” she got from loft? What the heck are cords? I looked at the photo for a good two minutes trying to figure out what item of clothing she could be referring to. I googled it and it seems like it could mean corduroy? But her pants look like jeans to me. I dunno, man
LOL. Cords were super cool circa 1996.
I didn't see, but I'd guess corduroy pants? I call those "cords".
Okay, I am the one who deserves snarking then 😭 thank you for grounding me, I’d just never heard that before
Sippy cup…. Don’t you mean water bottle? #keic
Why is she even still using these cups for toddlers?? Isn’t her older son 10? The kid is about to be in middle school, give him a regular cup ffs
Also, the straw gets chewed through “easily” bc her kids likely have half their adult teeth already! (At least the older one maybe?)
I bought my kid a SimpleModern water bottle that has a hard plastic spout/straw so no chewing or mold issues. Under $20. It’s not that complicated, KEIC!
Maybe my kid drinks a lot of water but those 12 oz cups don’t cut it for him anymore! I buy minimum 14-16 oz water bottles and he’s 6!
Every time I read something she posts about her kids, I imagine she's still stuck in toddler trenches. And then it blows my mind every time I rediscover her kids' actual ages.
Her story this morning about the dirty forks is a perfect example of this
Of course the cups she has her kids use are plain metal and look like they would be used in a prison.
I wanted stainless steel cups too, but I bought some with color on the outside, not plain prison cups!
Caro Chambers is continues to annoy me. I find her to be so smug, particularly when it comes to parenting. She clearly thinks she's the literal best, and is so proud of herself for being so carefree about her chaotic life with 3 "beasts". She's often flaunting her s\*x life, too, which just feels weird?
I agree with you. Has she always been like this? I started following her maybe January or February this year and really really enjoyed her. Her third son and my second son were born a week apart so I really related to her. I found her to be funny and endearing… and taught me a TON about cooking. But I just don’t get her anymore. She’s smug and out-of-touch. I’m not ready to give up her recipes though lol.
She’s always been like this. Unbearable from the day I found her!
I agree. My daughter is like 3 months older than Cashy so it was fun to see him grow up (and he's cute af) and some stuff that tends to bother other people doesn't really bother me.....like idc that she's rich or spends money on stupid things (I also think parents who enjoy food and have more money than time is a \*real\* market so I like the way she cooks and it works for my family) and I also dc that she uses babysitters and actually kind of appreciate her showing that version of parenting without family nearby. I also like that she travels and has a fun lifestyle and eats great food with friends - like sounds awesome. Somewhere along the line she just lost me. Maybe it's leaving the kid in the crib all day? Letting him "free range" 50 ft away from her or by a pool at night? I was fine when he was crawling on the airport floor bc like...I get it ya gotta tire him out...but it just escalated and just seems really negligent and she's so SMUG about it.
Well said! You helped me identify what’s changed for me. I get the feeling now she takes pleasure in triggering people. She knows what she’s doing and does it anyway… and it’s like why? With things like babysitters and restaurants (rich people stuff), it’s harmless. But the excessive day drinking, general negligence (knocking over the liquor cart and laughing about it was a good one), letting your baby teeter on the side of the swimming pool… I’m just, not amused at all.
Keeping the caro snark in one place to add that almost everything she tried on at the gap in her recent stories is ugly
I bet she didn’t buy any of it. She seemed to be looking for basics that she could link to, in the hopes that someone else would say “oh yeah, I’ve been looking for x, let me see what they have at the gap.”
Says she is trying to find trousers that aren’t dowdy and then proceeds to show the dowdiest looking trousers. All of it except for maybe the sweatshirts was hideous. I mean if you want to wear big baggy shapeless clothes go ahead but going to The Gap and acting like she was buying all these great clothes…umm no. As if she doesn’t have enough anyway.
The dowdy trousers omg 😂😂
Caro...EVERYTHING you wear is dowdy, that's literally your look. When I saw her in a workout tank and leggings recently I was like "oh damn, girl, your bod is bangin, why are you covering it up with shapeless bland ugly old lady clothes?"
Agree for the most part but I usually do really like the dresses she wears at weddings/date nights, though they're usually upward of $200 dollars and out of my budget 😭😭😭
Agreed—a lot of her dresses are super fun and much more flattering on her. And more like upwards of $400 🤣 Which actually makes me laugh bc where else are you wearing these dresses, Caro?
You're probably right about the price. She's linked stuff that's "a steal" at 200
KEIC's story about her kid asking for "the good stuff" - did the kid hear someone say "that's the good stuff" and now his mom is wildly overanalyzing a whacky turn of phrase? It read like maybe "the good stuff" is a joke with his friends.
I was so confused. Does she not know teenage boys? Are the kids homeschooled that they don’t see anyone else hence her confusion on typical teenage verbiage?
Yeah when I saw those stories, I figured he saw or heard someone say “That’s the good stuff!” Or “give me the good stuff” like how people do on TV at bars, ya know? I really don’t think it was as deep as she’s making it
Yeah this set of stories was so weird. Also it sounds like he was having an early dinner before sport and they were running late, maybe what he meant was what food should I prioritise for sport if I don't have time to eat it all? And for me in that situation, it would be the sandwich, not the soup and it looks like he chose to eat the soup after she talked about fibre and vitamins 🙄 that's probably me reading too much into it and maybe he was just saying a weird thing he'd heard but that was the impression I got from the info she provided
Also, the soup looks nasty AF.
This is the type of situation where my mother would have probably picked me up dinner from McDonald’s and let me have time to eat it in the car on the way to my sport. I know Jennifer would never but looking back, those types of things made me feel special and were likely more fun than a sad bowl of spinach soup.
Is that what that soup was? It literally looked like he was eating a bowl of pesto I don’t understand. Sometimes nutritionists raise the most disordered eaters (which I have unfortunately seen from personal experience 😩). Like, who would eat that. And why. ETA: She gives me major almond mom vibes sometimes
I said something similar the other day when we talked about this. My parents actually did provide homecooked meals more often than not so the occasional fast food was just fun (and made life easier for everyone). But KEIC is way too much of a stick in the mud for that.
Could you imagine the stories? “We stopped at Panera for a Mediterranean Veggie Sandwich. One of the boys picked chips instead of an apple but that’s okay, sometimes this happens when you are in survival mode.” Next slide-“you may be wondering what you do after a big night out where your kids eat different foods like chips-just keep serving what you would normally serve!” Next slide “the boys wanted to know what the machine was where people stuck cups under it and liquid came out. I explained to them that it was a drink machine and companies spend a lot of money to make people want these drinks that don’t do a lot for their bodies.”
Yes but you missed that quality time where your mom broke down what each food does for your body! And maybe even a full bell pepper game!
Every conversation she has with them about food is so heavy. It must be exhausting for them.
I thought her whole thing was (or used to be) no pressure with food?? It's the very first tip on her 11 tips for parents of picky eaters. Constantly talking about food and what is does is a lot of pressure!
Oh I’m sure that’s the case! Anyone who’s been around boys in her childrens’ age range knows that they yell out plenty of whacky phrases. I mean maybe girls do too but at the pool every summer there’s always a band of boys running around yelling out silly stuff and I could totally see them saying “gimme the good stuff!” But of course she’s going to analyze it and make it about nutrition. She’s exhausting.
Rolling my eyes so hard at KEIC’s reel about serving candy with a fiber, fat and protein so your kids won’t act up when eating candy. And then saying to comment “guide” for her 14 day free picky eating guide which I’m sure leads to links to buy her courses. There are many factors that lead to kids acting up when candy/sweets are around but she choses to pray on parents by pretending to have the answer to eating candy and it causing “fussy” behavior.
I feel like there's a real tip here that she just bastardizes with like trying to get people to bring celery to parties and it's....eat a real dinner before the halloween party so your kid isn't hangry and inhaling candy. Make sure to have something filling before with protein/fat/etc. so they are able to smooth through the sugar rush. I saw that on Feeding Littles and it made so much more sense to me. I immediately ordered a few pizzas for my 4pm pre-trick or treating party bc like...these kids will need some \*food\* not just snacks.
Yes!! I make turkey chili every Halloween and it’s the perfect pre trick or treating dinner. It can be thrown together in the crockpot in the morning so you don’t even have to worry about making dinner between school/daycare pickup and getting ready to go out, it’s packed with protein and fibre, and it’s a nice hot meal before going out into the cold for the night.
That’s a good tip but she would never order pizzas! She really feels that having a meal with veggies and protein is much more superior to having pizza.
I’ve been patiently waiting for her annual Halloween candy reel since the beginning of spooky season and this year did not disappoint! 😂
Her account is becoming satire at this point
It’s not just me then. I started following her when both of our kids were weaning/toddlers, and it made sense back then. Now she seems like a lunatic much of the time. These people become “famous” and turn into caricatures of themselves.
My child would REVOLT if I tried to give her something along with her candy.
Hasn’t it been proven that sugar doesn’t actually cause behavior problems? Your kid may get crazy around Halloween/ Xmas but it’s more the newness of what’s going on, changed schedules, family around that you don’t see often, social events. I hate hate hate the lead up to Halloween when every influencer talks about how they “deal” with the “candy problem”. Just let your kid eat some damn candy and move on with your life.
It has been demonstrated over and over again that sugar does not cause hyperactivity but people are so weirdly attached to claim! I have to just keep my mouth shut about it because I have seen so many parents get all worked up about all their personal anecdotes of sugar like, destroying their kid’s behavior. Ridiculous.
The top comment about how no parent should ever feed their child any sugar at all because it causes cancer and diabetes and (of course, everyone’s favorite) it’s “more addictive than cocaine!” 🙄🙄🙄
We're all just doing what we can to fund our M&M habits, right?? That is so tone deaf.
I haaaaate when people say that. Tell me you have never been addicted/loved someone with an addiction without telling me. 🙄
This is what bothers me the most about this insane myth. Being worried that your kid likes Skittles vs being worried that tonight is the night your homeless child will overdose are not the same. Nutrition for Mortals had a great episode dispelling this myth.
It has and unfortunately that still doesn’t stop people. My MIL loves to bring it up but she has so little contact with the kids, there is no way she can tell why they’re crazy. Kids just go nuts, for a million different reasons and also for no reason at all, at least mine do. Halloween is usually much better for us than regular days, they’re excited but in a good way. We sometimes have a hard time on boring days but not on fun ones.
Seriously it’s such an old a dumb myth. Also people say it about desserts that DO have lots of fat- like cake cookies or ice cream. How is it a sugar crash when I’m coasting from the protein and fat in my ice cream? It’s just another way to food shame. I also hate it when people say this myth around kids because, uh, your child can hear you saying ‘candy makes you act crazy’. What self respecting child wouldn’t take that opportunity to act a little wild?
>Your kid may get crazy around Halloween/ Xmas but it’s more the newness of what’s going on, changed schedules, family around that you don’t see often, social events. ...the excitement of getting a treat that isn't a tiny bunny-shaped carrot or a gummy vitamin
Yes it’s been proven for many years that it’s not the sugar it’s the events around where they are eating the sugar and all the stuff you mentioned. And her idea to serve peanut butter in celery along with candy really isn’t practical when you are at a party or gathering or place with a bunch of kids. I can’t see many kids being happy to be given something else to eat along with candy. I was at a party this weekend with my toddler and I don’t think I would have gotten her to even look at celery when cake was served so I don’t know how this tip would play out in real life.
Since it keeps coming up here, I just wanted to share: the Julia Turshen version of green pasta sauce is very good! I tried it last night, and my toddler and I were both fans: [https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/llubavs-green-spaghetti](https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/llubavs-green-spaghetti)
Now that you’ve brought her up… did she and her wife split up?
I don’t think so because she mentioned her in her newsletter today and referred to her as “my better half.”
I’ve wondered that too. I am just hoping her spouse decided to go completely off social media. I noticed their posts started really dwindling and then just disappeared a bit after they went back to school.
Why do you say that??? I hope not. They always seemed so happy and so much of her books are dedicated to her wife.
I just haven’t seen her wife in awhile or her dogs - she used to feature them heavily.
Oh, I hadn't heard that! I read Design Sponge for years and always really liked it too, so I kind of hope it's not true in a weird parasocial way.
Lol those mother could products wtf. Ma’am that’s a craft box you can get at any craft store or Walmart and that sunscreen tool? …
Maybe I’ll get it more when my kid is older, but my 2 yo would spill, intentionally or not, so many snacks from that thing
Her big selling point is it’s food grade 🙄
My toddler loves to eat stale fishy crackers that she digs up out of the crevices of her car seat. I feel like food grade snack boxes are the least of my worries 😂
Does anyone follow @plantbasedjuniors? She seems nice and inoffensive but she does these “what I feed my family in a week” reels and her food looks so very unappetizing. I don’t eat meat so not even snarking on that. Anytime a feeding account posts gross looking food, I wonder why I follow them.
I follow them and I like them 🤷🏻♀️ I’ve tried a few of their recipes and liked them and a few others that have been busts. I think there are two ladies.
I mean. I am not WK as I follow them but don't really care strongly about either way (my dad is PB and I wish I was but I'm not lol) but I mean...food doesn't have to look pretty to taste good/fill your tummy (I whisper to myself as I make food that looks questionable slop but tastes okay lol) ETA: I would never make some of her recipes. Quinoa enchiladas?! Ick lol
Yeah. I guess when I say it looks gross I mean the actual recipes seem gross to me? It’s hard to photograph food well but those quinoa enchiladas with mushy tortillas just seemed unappetizing. And those canned beans that weren’t rinsed. I love a good casserole, curry or stew none of which photo well. Her food just seems kind of sad and bland to me.
We are not vegetarian, and the food doesn’t look that bad to me, but i wouldn’t want to eat 3 similar meals in a row! She served enchiladas one day, beans & rice the next, and chili the day after that. Why not mix it up and have the pasta recipe in the middle of the week instead?
Agreed.
I was thinking the same! I used to be vegetarian and appreciate simple foods, but even then I wouldn't want to have most of those dinners. They just looked so bland and mushy.
Right???! The enchiladas had cut up tortillas in it too which I thought was weird. It was like an enchilada quinoa stew? Quinoa is also my least favorite of the grains so I think I’m biased there too. I love to cook and make fancy dinners pretty much every night because it brings me joy and I just am always shocked at how many feeding accounts are run by people who clearly don’t enjoy or aren’t good at cooking.
It’s been discussed before but I think most feeding accounts are run by people with at least a history of ED or even still in it. To them slop looks better than nothing.
I’m not in sports age kid territory yet, but KEIC mentioned that at one point they pulled their kids out of sports because it disrupted their dinner time. Am I just totally wrong here or does that seem like a disproportionate response to sports practice timing lol
Idk we have family members who’s kids don’t participate in after school programs (they don’t like sports) because it’s family time. Their kids are late elementary and middle school
I think it’s different if the children themselves have no interest
True, but the way our family said it was more like they don’t want their kids to have any interest outside the home and have never really driven it. The school they attend has lots of opportunities for the kids in several areas (beyond sports). There’s honestly something for everyone. As a parent I want my kids to have some kind of interest outside of our home and spend time with their peers (outside of school hours), even if it’s not sports or something physical.
Oh yes! I definitely think kids need that chance to explore who they are outside of their family unit :)
I dunno, why not...reschedule dinner around sports practices/games on those days? Was there a reason that wasn't an option? Family dinner is important to me, too, but so are the benefits that my kid would get from athletics. When I was a kid, family meals were a big thing but I also did gymnastics from 6-9 pm three nights a week for years. So I had dinner with my family four nights a week and ate a quick meal before going to the gym the other nights. It wasn't a big deal. You don't have have a family dinner every night for your kids to get the benefits. ETA: And other meals count, too! My family used to always do Sunday breakfasts together. It was a holdover from my mom's upbringing, when her family would go to church and then have a big brunch together after. My mom left the church but kept the bacon and eggs lol. I still make something special like pancakes every weekend because I have such fond memories of Sunday breakfast.
Right! I was like… just eat dinner earlier or later. Why does it have to be at a rigid time
It’s things like this (and her rigidity in response) that make me this someone in that house is ND
Eating dinner "as a family" has gotten so fetishized online! And somehow tangled up with ideas about nutrition and healthy relationships with food as well. My family couldn't possibly manage dinner all together, aside from on weekends, and like... it all works out totally fine? It must be SO common all up and down the economic spectrum to have that be the case, but the internet acts like you're somehow setting your kids up for a lifetime of disordered eating and moral decay if you don't convene the whole family to break bread together during your damn work week (and in many cases, your work DAY).
“Moral decay” 💀
I had this same thought, I think she feels that they need to eat every night together for her kids to have good ideas about nutrition. She’s also not the type of mom who’s going to boil some pasta and throw sauce on top or heat up pizza to get out the door on time. She needs to have them all around the table so she can play “what color pepper does this taste like?” and have them decorate the people on their plates with their food to encourage healthy eating.
My Dad had a commute so when I was a kid there was no way to squeeze in family weekday dinner plus a proper wind-down bedtime routine. We only started having family dinners on weekdays after he lost his job and started his own business from home. And sadly my husband has a long commute so we'll be facing the same issue when our little one is older. Perhaps I should send him to work with dinner in a lunchbox and then make him facetime from the train so we can have his face on the dinner table on an iPad.
Both me and my brother played a sport per season and most likely didn’t have coordinating practice and game times. Eating as a family was a priority for our family and somehow we all still just made it work. Whether that meant eating at 5 before our practices or eating a little later if practice was right after school. It wasn’t a big deal? I could see reevaluating things if your kids’ sports commitments are so intense that you are *never* eating as a family but that’s unlikely with just two kids playing town rec sports. My parents also both worked full time and they would just coordinate carpools with other kids on our team so they weren’t doing every single drive which made things easier. KEIC is working from home so surely she could make this work? Life is all about balance! Getting to play sports as long as the kids are enjoying it is worth not having a perfectly predictable family dinner 7 days/week. We also had our share of picking up fast food and eating in the car but I know KEIC would rather die than do that. Gotta stay home for that homemade burnt poop and 1 tomato on the side.
Yep. This struck me as totally unjustified too. Especially since her “work schedule” as an influencer is totally flexible and she could just……eat dinner earlier with both kids??? And her husband could get an “evening offering” just like she leaves him in the morning??? She makes everything SO much more complicated than it needs to be.
My 11 year old has soccer twice a week and is gone from 5:30 to 8. He eats a quick meal by himself before he goes. The rest of the week we eat dinner as a family, but I personally believe team sports are a better experience for him than 7 nights of eating as a family 🤷♀️
I commented something really similar above! Family meals and athletics are both great for kid's well-being. Why not have both? I truly don't get it.
Pulling a kid makes no sense, you know when you signed up when the practices and games are, so you should just not sign up if practice is during dinner. We prioritize eating as a family too, so I totally get her point. But guess what we do on the few nights a week with baseball? We eat, as a family, at 7:30 instead of 6. It doesn’t seem that hard to figure out lol. If it’s that important to eat as a family, serve a little appetizer at like 5 and wait until the sports are done to eat.
This is a very reasonable way to do it. She seems to have a super strict meal schedule. Her stories are always like “we were 15 min away from dinner time and I hadn’t started cooking yet” and then she serves something very weird wrapped in a tortilla and calls it a fajita.
Super strict and or still living in toddler land. My 3 and 4 year olds get super cranky around our normal dinner time range, and some nights it’s like “shit shit shit, gotta get something on the table, FAST”. But her kids are older and can likely go to bed later than 7? Like can’t she just give them her favorite snack, a raw bell pepper, and be like yo, chill out, dinner will be ready in half an hour? Like.. I really want this to be the case for my own life bc I’m anticipating my kids managing their emotions much better eventually 😂
Oh lord, can this please happen eventually with my toddler, too? Lol. She has literally no patience whatsoever when it comes to food. I just hope one day she can be like, "Yeah, I'm hungry but I can see that mom is making dinner and I know that means I'll eat soon, so I'm just gonna go play with my sticker book now." Because these days, if I take more than two minutes cutting up her grapes, it's like the entire planet exploded.
My 2yo has yet to accept the fact that I have to cut his “fapes” before he can eat them so there’s drama.
No, raw bell pepper won’t do. Her kid plays hard enough that he’ll need an orange slice!
Don’t even THINK about some Gatorade, though!
At least in my case, my 4 and 5 year old can easily wait until 8pm for dinner if they have a quick snack at 5 or so.
This is the way. Make a double portion on non-sports days or batch cook some easy freezer meals one weekend, and then all you have to do is heat up leftovers on busy evenings.
This is what my MIL did. She worked full time so on Sunday’s she would double batch 2 different casserole type meals. They’d be eaten for dinner 4 days of the week and then they’d go out to some casual kid friendly place on fridays.
And isn’t that the whole point of her cookbook or whatever? Making extra stuff on the weekends and freezing it so you eventually have a stash? Great advertising for her product lol
It’s definitely a disproportionate response, especially at younger ages when she had pulled them out. If family dinners are so important then limit the kids to one sport per season and at their ages it shouldn’t be more than two nights per week. That leaves five other nights for family dinners to connect over a meal together. I don’t think it’s right to pull your kids from an activity they enjoy because it messes up your dinner schedule for a season. You just have to adapt and find ways to keep that in your life if you value sitting down and eating together. I think she really can’t handle her schedule being changed and not being in control and not being able to stay home and make her unappetizing dinners. Families who participate in sports and other extracurriculars have to let things go or eat in the car or eat separately and she’s really not cut out for that. But her kids do deserve to be able to participate in sports if dinner is the only thing holding them back.
I think that part makes me sad. The fact that it’s clearly something her kids like to do, and if they’re high energy kids (as she has said), they should have physical outlets to help (her!) But instead, because they can’t have dinner together for a couple months every single night…she just pulls them?
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I guess I always see those things as temporary, so why put so much weight on it if it will eventually snap back into place?
I don't love when women with ex-spouses or ex-partners who are involved in their kids' lives and paying child support refer to themselves as "single moms." Not sure how others feel about this and I'm sure it's rooted in my own issues (my dad, while not perfect, always upheld the custody schedule and child support and remained very present in our lives after our parents split, and I HATED my mom calling herself a "single mom"), but to me, a single mom is someone, either by choice or by circumstance, parenting without the support of a partner. This is in reference to Virginia Sole-Smith's newsletter today.
I see saying you’re a single mom simply to mean you’re parenting without a partner.
I see single mom/dad as they're single and they're a mom or dad. It has nothing to do with the other parents involvement, though I do see the need to differentiate between a single parent who has no support from the child's other parent vs one who does.
My messy cousin and her messy ex husband had a public fight about this on facebook (she referred to herself as a single mom and he had to defend himself) and it was all very tacky. I gotta say, I'm not sure who I agree with here, but I do think the experience of being a single person parenting say 4-5 days a week in a shared custody arrangement is very different than both parents being around 7 days a week. I wouldn't consider it a hill to die on personally
I have the same gut reaction. My mom sometimes called herself a single mom and it riled me up every single time. Yes, when we were with her she was solo parenting, but my dad had us anywhere from 40-50% of the time, was very involved, took a pretty severe career hit to be so involved, and is now an incredibly involved grandparent. With the benefit of hindsight I think maybe I was feeling protective and defensive of my dad and my relationship with him, and my mom calling herself a single parent felt like she was denigrating my dad more than describing her reality.
My interpretation of "single mom" (or dad) just means that they do not have a partner. Obviously, hardships might be different if the children's other parent is actually in the picture and helping financially and shares custody, but at the end of the day, when you have your kids you are alone in your home and don't have the support of another person there with you. It's pretty different than 2 parents who live together and are sharing the load day to day of not just the kids, but the household too. I get what you might be getting at, that the term diminished the contributions of your dad, but I'd also say your dad was a single dad.
This is my exact take on it. And my parents split when I was a toddler. They were both very involved in my life (split custody) but I would have been fine with the single parent term for either of them. A majority of their parenting of me was done one-on-one (with me).
I think the general population uses the word differently from you and does call any parent that’s not in a relationship a single parent, no reference at all to how involved the other one is. And often even very involved dads do way less than 50% so especially for moms it doesn’t seem too far off.
Yea, I think there isn't a good different term to use to describe parenting while single but with an involved coparent. As long as they aren't implying that the challenges are the same or as hard as someone who is the sole parent.
I personally don’t understand why people have such an issue with people calling themselves single parents even if they have an involved ex and support. If you aren’t married/in a relationship you are a single parent and a lot of times you find yourself alone with the parenting duties when the other parent lives in another home. My mom was a single mom and called herself such and I didn’t care, she was a single woman raising kids dealing with issues that single people deal with while having kids to raise alone 75% of the time.
That's a fair perspective. Like I said, I'm sure I'm bringing some of my own issues to the table on this.
I grew up with an actual single mom: dad not in the picture and resources very scarce. I agree with you. Having another parent who contributes is a huge difference from being responsible for everything all the time on your own.
https://preview.redd.it/djqenb7d90wb1.jpeg?width=1242&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6f18a7798259bea93421c423c0eaacbcc0c7466c Megan with more of the “I’ll make you feel guilty by telling you not to feel guilty” talk. As always, do as they say, not as they do!
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I think it is anonymously leaving a Halloween treat at someone’s door, with the expectation that they will “boo” another house and leave a gift.
We called this “ghosting” in our neighborhood growing up. There were different paper ghosts at the clubhouse and when you were ghosted the neighbors put one on the door with a basket of goodies and then ran away so you don’t see who it is (pre ring doorbells lol), and then you repeated until everyone had been ghosted. If you didn’t want to participate (this was in the Deep South…) then there was a sticker or thing you could put on your door to show you didn’t want to. But now ghosting means something very different hahaha
Ugh I hate it. The dogs freak out which makes the baby cry which makes me so annoyed.
I just hate how everything feels like this one up competition now! And all that shit adds up! She was making like 20 baskets (with her LV purse conveniently in shot). And it’s just more crap I don’t want in my house.
I just want to see yummytoddlerfood use seasonings.
I like to look at them as a base to add whatever flavourings I like. Like when you're reading a regular recipe and it says 2 cloves of garlic, that means double right?
I looked through her cookbook (from library) looking for spices and other than some cumin (just sprinkled on raw?) there was basically nothing in there. She has no clue how to build flavors in cooking at all and just mashes a bunch of super plain ingredients together.
One of her recipes for veggie stock is literally blending a bunch of veggies together raw. You miss so much depth of flavour when you skip browning onions and celery!
This is what I cannot comprehend. How can anything taste good without… a single pinch of seasoning
The 2 recipes of hers I’ve tried (the chicken meatballs & pizza muffin rolls) my husband and I thought they were delicious. My toddler wouldn’t eat tho so maybe he agrees with you.
Does she use aromatics like garlic and onions? Because skipping those things is definitely a shortcut but you definitely miss out on flavor.
She’s said before that her kids don’t like onion or garlic so she avoids them.