Innocent Question From My Son

Well, if you've gotten this far, hopefully you'll start to leave a comments!

Yesterday afternoon, as my youngest son - age 7 - was wrapping up his homework, he asks me the following question, out of the blue: "Daddy, did you eat a lot of candy when you were a kid?"  I had no idea where this was coming from.

I said, "Oh, I don't know... maybe more than I should have.  Why do you ask?"

"Well," he says, "because you're fat."

And he doesn't say it in a mean way.  In fact, I took it as quite the opposite.  He's trying to make the connection, I guess.  There wasn't any more to the conversation beyond that.  After the exchange, he went about his business and I mine, but it's something I keep thinking about.  Obviously, it doesn't take a road scholar to know that I'm fat, but what struck me was that it's the first time either of my kids had said something about my being fat.  My older son, turning 9 in November, has never said a thing.  Not that it's forbidden or anything... it's just never come up.  

It's interesting to me, because it's not like we make a big deal about candy, sweets & desert.  My wife makes a deliberate effort to ensure that all of their meals are balanced with protein and veggies... not just Mac & Cheese every night.  They rarely get soda, and generally, only milk with dinner.  They only get desert if they finish their meal, so really only about once a week when they both finish AND remember to ask.  Usually when they get candy, like from Halloween or a birthday party or something, it mostly just sits.  Like I said, it's just not a big deal.  I, myself, rarely eat candy - I save it for Ice Cream!!! LOL.

So, what's your experience with your kids?