by Tee Celise

Created on: July 24, 2008

I watched as my daughter prepared dinner for her four-year old. Dustin was perched on a stepstool at the kitchen counter.

"Broccoli or corn?" she asked him.

"On the stick or in a pile?" he responded.

"The broccoli will be in a pile. The corn is on the cobnot stick'" They laughed together and he chose the corn-on-the-cob because it was more fun to eat than the "little trees" that he called broccoli. She handed him a fresh ear of corn and a paper shopping bag and knelt down in front of him.

"Do you remember what we learned about corn?"

My grandson nodded excitedly and took the ear of corn from her. "Peel all the stuff off so we can see all the little corn buttons!" She helped him get started pulling the husk away from the stalk, tossing it in the bag and let him continue on his own. While he was completely engrossed in the process of removing all the small corn silk from the ear, I reminded her that when I was raising children, I used to simply decide what I wanted to make for dinner and then cook it, while she and her brother and sister watched television. I asked her whether it was really worth all this effort.

After all, I raised three children who are fine, grown adults now. Granted, there were fights at the dinner table over refusals to eat certain vegetables. There were teary tantrums after too much soda pop or snack food. There were grocery store tug-of-wars with sugar-coated cereals winning and me giving up to my children's demands. She smiled and told me she was happy to have me there for the weekend, so I could see for myself whether her efforts made any difference in the long run.

After dinner, as I began to settle into the sofa for a little television, my grandson came out of his room with his jacket in his hand.

"C'mon, Grammy, it's take-a-walk time!"

I looked pleadingly at my daughter, but got no reprieve.

"We take a walk every night after dinner," she said, looking at Dustin. "It helps our tummy get the food to our body, and exercise makes your whole body happy and strong."

Dustin skipped down the walkway singing "Happy and strong, happy and strong"

What I learned at dinner that night and over the next two days have given me a new perspective in raising healthy children. I learned:

1. When children are encouraged to participate in the preparation of the meal, they are more likely to enjoy it.
2. When you want a child to enjoy a food, you should teach them something interesting about that food and they will remember and want to share that back with you (or

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