Here's a Story
On Christmas Eve I sat down to dinner with my daughter and grandsons Josh (13) and Alex (10). She had prepared ham, green beans, and yams. Josh said grace, and we started eating.
A few months earlier, Tina had prepared yellow squash, and both boys *hated* it. It was a real challenge to get them to eat it at all. They started to associate sweet potatoes with squash, and were very suspicious of the yams.
Tina does not want her boys to be picky eaters. She wants them to grow up eating healthy foods and to not be entitled "pains in the butt" as adults. So she makes them taste good, healthy foods so they will become accustomed to them and learn to like them.
They did not want to eat the yams.
I told them, "Yams are like carrots. You like carrots, don't you? Vitamin A. Makes your eyes healthy. Helps you hit home runs."
Didn't work.
Okay. "Children are starving in Africa. They would love to eat these yams. Eat your yams and think of those poor, starving children."
They gagged down a couple of bites on pain of "no dessert."
Later, as we watched television, the usual Christmas tear-jerking commercials kept repeating about Unicef starving children and the abandoned animals in shelters, accompanied by heart-wrenching music. When one would start, we would all moan and say, "Oh no, here we go again."
Finally, one started about the starving, abandoned animals in shelters. Everyone was quiet for a change.
Alex said, "Grandma, do you think those dogs would like yams?"
...
A few months earlier, Tina had prepared yellow squash, and both boys *hated* it. It was a real challenge to get them to eat it at all. They started to associate sweet potatoes with squash, and were very suspicious of the yams.
Tina does not want her boys to be picky eaters. She wants them to grow up eating healthy foods and to not be entitled "pains in the butt" as adults. So she makes them taste good, healthy foods so they will become accustomed to them and learn to like them.
They did not want to eat the yams.
I told them, "Yams are like carrots. You like carrots, don't you? Vitamin A. Makes your eyes healthy. Helps you hit home runs."
Didn't work.
Okay. "Children are starving in Africa. They would love to eat these yams. Eat your yams and think of those poor, starving children."
They gagged down a couple of bites on pain of "no dessert."
Later, as we watched television, the usual Christmas tear-jerking commercials kept repeating about Unicef starving children and the abandoned animals in shelters, accompanied by heart-wrenching music. When one would start, we would all moan and say, "Oh no, here we go again."
Finally, one started about the starving, abandoned animals in shelters. Everyone was quiet for a change.
Alex said, "Grandma, do you think those dogs would like yams?"
...