Food on road trips with the kids
Lifehacker are asking for tips for commuters wanting healthy food options and it got me thinking about the whole food thing on lengthy road trips.
I think it’s fair to say that you need something more than McDonalds to cover a six to eight hour road trip. We’ve certainly stop at the fast food place on the side of the freeway but we also carry a bunch of semi-healthy snacks that help to pass the time as well as reduce the chance of screams from the back of the car about wanting chips (we’ve avoided them eating a burger so far).
Here’s some tips on snacks that take a while to eat, something that’s handy as time is no object trapped in a car:
1. Fruit straps - they take a while to chew and aren’t ridiculously high in sugar
2. Little tupperware containers with sultanas, dried apricot. If you have more than one type of dried fruit the kids tend to enjoy the variety more.
3. Cut up watermelon - it may get a little messy but you won’t get any complaints from the kids!
I’d love to hear your food tips for longer car trips. What works for you? Any interesting food disasters in the car?
MumDad Media - parenting in the news
Each week we plan on doing a roundup of media sites and blogs that feature interesting articles on parenting, family and kids. So here’s the first edition:
1. The Guardian (UK) - Good old parenting will keep the online bogeymen at bay. “The day after Barack Obama won in Iowa, I tried to engage my nine-year-old daughters in a conversation about what had the feel of a historic moment. “Oh yeah,” one replied. “I’ve seen him on Presidential Paintball.” I looked bemused, and she promptly Googled up a game in which players could adopt the persona of White House hopefuls, blasting away at each other with green goo.”
2. The Mining Gazette (USA) - On Parenting And Life. “Life is a journey, full of good times and bad. For the past couple of weeks, my life has been roller coaster that I just can’t seem to stop. This ordeal started March 4 when I received a phone call at work from my son’s teacher. Christian, she said, had a severe nose bleed and I was needed to come check it out. When I got there, I saw how upset and distraught he was. I got him ready and off to the the hospital we went.”
3. The Telegraph (UK) - The idle parent. “I hope you’ll forgive me a moment of idle parent smugness. But I think this story helps to prove that a life of pleasure can continue alongside child-rearing. I recently found myself at Castle Cary station in Somerset with three children in tow and an hour to wait for the train to Paddington. How would I cope? By nature lacking foresight, I had forgotten to bring any toys or amusements. I sat down in the waiting-room among the other passengers and gave the eldest child some of those tourist pamphlets to leaf through, while the smallest one sat on my lap.”
4. PennState Live (USA) - Early living together, marriage, parenting benefits some young adults. “Young people are always encouraged to complete their education and postpone marriage and children to achieve more rewarding lifestyles. However, a Penn State study found that for some young adults, getting married or living together and having children have provided positive benefits. “In industrial countries, young people age 18 to 25 are expected to explore their identity, work and love by delaying marriage and parenthood,” says lead author Alan Booth, distinguished professor of sociology, human development and demography. “It is believed that those individuals who fail to postpone these family transitions miss out on better career opportunities, make poor choices on partners, and may experience problems.”
5. The Globe and Mail (Canada) - Are the children safe? And are the children too safe? “Becoming a parent means you have more to worry about, but does it actually mean you have more to fear? We cocoon kids with organized play dates, rules against playing in the front yard and walking to school unsupervised, not to mention protective gear for every conceivable outdoor activity. So is it possible we’re raising anxious, risk-averse children? Or is this, quite possibly, just something else to worry about?”
6. Sydney Morning Herald - Risks in sharing bed with kids. “It’s the middle of the night, you’ve just fed your baby and you’re both feeling dozy; wouldn’t it be nice to drop off to sleep together in bed? Well, yes - and no. Welcome to the contentious issue of co-sleeping.”
7. The Fallbrook Village News - Does parenting style reinforce anxiety in kids? “Any parent can tell you that his or her child’s personality was always just “there.” The sweet, smiling infant becomes the happy-go-lucky kindergartner. The sour-faced foot-stamper morphs into, well, a four-year-old who thinks she or he is 18. Even in the earliest stages of life, parents can see that their baby is shy or a people person. So is personality set in stone from the womb or do we as parents have the power to change how our children react to the world?”
8. Suburban Daddy - Parenting Poll Of The Week - Kids and Video Games. “When I was a kid I played a lot of video games. My favorite games were (now) classics like Missle Command and Centipede. It was a simpler time for video games. The games were so basic. Nobody considered them violent at the time. But, I guess, when I consider the premise of those games now, there was an awful lot of “blowing things up”.”
9. Weary Parent - Paris Hilton is a Role Model? “Paris Hilton is in Turkey to help choose the new Miss Turkey 2008. She said she’s not just looking for a pretty face, but she’s also looking for a “good heart” during her time judging the competition. “I’m going to look at how the girls carry themselves, what they look like, the way they dress and what they say,” she said.”
10. Peter Bracken - A Dad’s guide to parenting, 5: let sleeping dogs lie. “There is a feeling among parents that out-of-school children are like peace-time armies: they need to be exercised, occupied and maintained. The military analogy is apt in another sense, too: the regimented, disciplined manner in which we ferry our children from piano pillar to football post and back again in an effort to squeeze the most from their formative years.”
11. Scott Counseling - Demanding Child. “It’s not unusual for Children to begin to make some kind of demanding remarks between the ages of two and four years of age. This behavior is often a test given by a child to test parent limits and boundaries. Children who are demanding often are seeking control or may be facing some stress in their life. Parents who avoid stopping a child’s inappropriate demands may only be reinforcing such behaviors and allowing the child to develop a false sense of pride and security. Furthermore, there is growing research that supports the notion that demanding children become teenagers who feel they are “entitled” and “owed” whatever demands they make. Children need to learn early in life that they need a balance between giving and receiving.”
Recipes for kids
It’s hard to find snacks for kids that are healthy, inexpensive and easy to make. Often the best snacks are homemade as you know what’s in them and how nutritious they are. Baking is a good rainy day activity to do with kids that is fun and helps them to develop some practical life skills.
I thought a good first recipe would be pikelets:
1 cup (250g/8oz) self-raising flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 egg lightly beaten
¾ cup (180ml/6 fl oz) milk
1. Sift flour than add sugar, egg and milk. Mix with wooden spoon until smooth.
2. Heat a heavy bottomed frypan and drop in 3-4 teaspoons of the pikelet mixture.
3. When bubbles appear on top, the pikelets are cooked. Flip over and cook for a few more seconds.
4. Sultanas or chopped dried fruit can be added for variation.
5. The plain pikelets can be frozen.
Do you have a favourite pikelet recipe you’d like to share?
It’s time to be happy
In these days of overprotection and structured childhood, being a kid has really become preparation for ’successful’ adulthood. An adult life that most (all?) parents hope will be triumphant and more successful than their own.
We give our kids a lot - more than we had, more than our parents had. All those material possessions and essential experiences that they need in order to be the successful, intelligent and beautiful adult we know (want) them to be. We parents pay a lot for all those meaningful, educational experiences that will give our child just the right skills to be the best.
But - they don’t seem to appreciate or even be aware of what we’re doing for them. The time, the cost, the inconvenience we go through to give our kids everything they need. It’s sooo frustrating. Don’t they understand?
Perhaps it’s us who don’t understand. We’re no longer allowing our kids to be what they want to be. Do we let them enjoy being kids and experience the fun if the childhoods we had? Can we let them get the lumps and bumps and scrapes from playing outside? Is it right to let them fight their own battles and sometimes lose? Will doing that make them happier, or more to the point will it make our lives easier? Can we let our kids enjoy being kids and do some of the things we did when we were younger?
Everyone needs down-time and some unstructured space in which to explore and enjoy life. So here at Happy Parent we’ve come up with 50 essential experiences that all ‘well-rounded adults need to have had in order to appreciate life and the world. We’ll roll out those 50 in coming months, as well as some running commentary on issues facing parents today. I’ll explain more about myself in coming weeks, as will my spouse and co-blogger, David.