I love family snapshots, especially ones from decades past, so I thought I would share this with you. This is me, as a toddler at my parents house in Sausalito, CA, with my favorite Beatrix Potter bowl circa 1972. (I still have that bowl today. You see I really am a bit of a freak about tabletop!)
My son, now 7 months old, just started solid foods about one month ago. With his introduction to the solid stuff, I've been thinking a lot about his nutrition and forming his attitudes about food. As GenX parent, I realize how different it is to raise children today in so many ways. The prevalence of processed foods, childhood obesity and disappearing phenonmenons known as "dinner with the family" and the "home cooked meal" make for a different environment from how I grew up. Granted, with a working single mom, my upbringing wasn't Brady Bunch perfect, but somehow 6 out of the 7 nights we sat down to a meal together that, while not gourmet, was simple and healthy. Probably a bi-product of growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1970s, but for me comfort food has always been fresh fruit juice, smoothies and copious amounts of vegetables.
For my son, my hope to raise him in an environment where home cooked meals are the norm. I'm not expecting to do it every day, but I don't want to be one of those Hamburger Helper moms. There is something that grounds me every time I eat nice home cooked meal at my very own table. For me, I guess it's a bit of therapy.