🥦 Kid Food Battles: 67 Hours a Year Spent Negotiating! 😅
If you've got kids, you know how picky they can be about food. A new survey of 2,000 parents shows just how much time we spend negotiating with our little ones over meals, and it's a whopping 67 hours a year! 😅
Here are some fun facts from the survey:
- Five bargains a week: That's the average number of food deals parents strike with their kids.
- Dinner drama: Dinner is the most common meal for pushback, especially from kids under five, who are the pickiest eaters.
- Nutritional worries: Nearly half of parents (44%) are concerned that their kid's pickiness is affecting their nutrition.
- Kid-approved foods: The top foods kids never say no to are pizza (76%), chicken nuggets (73%), fries (72%), mac and cheese (66%), and hamburgers (58%).
Parents have some tricks up their sleeves to get their kids to try new foods:
- Pairing new with familiar: 31% of parents pair new foods with ones their kids already love.
- Cooking together: 36% get their kids involved in cooking meals.
- Gradual introduction: 34% gradually introduce new foods.
And guess what? About a quarter (26%) of parents admit they were picky eaters as kids and still are today! 😜
Most Common Kid Complaints at Mealtime:
- "I don’t like vegetables/a certain vegetable" (37%)
- "I don’t like the smell" (33%)
- "I don’t like the way it looks" (32%)
- "It’s too spicy" (22%)
- "It’s too mushy" (18%)
- "I don’t want to eat something new" (14%)
- "It’s too plain/bland" (10%)
- "It’s boring" (9%)
- "I had this recently" (9%)
- "It’s too chewy" (9%)
So, next time you're in a food negotiation with your kid, remember you're not alone! 🍕🥦