Over the last week I have been following Jamie Oliver on twitter and his mission to educate people so they can feed their kids sustainable food. One commentator on a blog wrote at length about Jamie’s astonishment when he found out, that there are a lot of kids in America growing up not using knives and forks to eat. For them food is always finger food.
I found this quiet shocking too and I don’t think that we here in Australia are much different.
I think it’s a parent’s duty to give their kids basic manners and social skills – and I know it is hard, I am still struggling with two of my kids using the knife as an aid to put things onto their fork (the knife as a cutting device is much more appreciated by the boys.)
I think we have to distinguish between eating as the task of putting food in one’s mouth so you don’t starve and eating as in family dinners, sharing stories and food. I am talking about the later, because I honestly believe, that’s where eating disorders start. Food needs to be appreciated – kids have to develop a relationship with food, they have to learn about food, and, to come back to where I began, to learn the socially accepted way to eat it.
But it’s not just lack of cooking skills, time and ability to use a knife and fork. I am coming across a lot of families that basically don’t have a dinner table they can use.
And that’s not because they don’t have one, but because it’s so full of clutter that nobody eats at it.
So mums feed the kids in front of the TV, that’s easy and very non confrontational. And when dad comes home, the parents do the same, balancing their plate on their knees.
I would say, no wonder kids grow up with some sort of eating disorder, either too much or too little, because who would go to the effort of cooking nice food if nobody really gets what’s eaten , distracted by watching TV.
So, I am going to  tweet to Jamie Oliver to show him this other obstacle in the way to fulfill his mission of family dinners.