How to help teens have a peaceful relationship with food
Illustration by Shanée Benjamin for Vox
American food culture is difficult for so many people, and for caregivers it can be a downright nightmare. Parents, especially mothers, are tasked with serving kids the “right” foods and cultivating the “right” attitude toward eating. Exactly what the right foods and attitudes are is hazy, as long as your child is thin; if they’re fat, there will be a chorus of people telling you that everything you do is wrong and your child should feel bad about themselves. To add to the pressure, parents are often blamed for their children’s eating disorders.
Trying to thread this impossible needle puts enormous stress on something every person needs to do many times a day: eat.
It’s time for a new objective, especially for tweens and teens. Caregivers have a lot of direct control over young children’s eating habits, and can also shield them from some outside pressures around eating. But as adolescence dawns, kids take on more responsibility for their own choices around food, while also being forced to navigate an often-hostile culture around body image.