Today was Bento Day on TLT, which means we saw some adorable bento lunches that three talented moms prepare for their kids regularly, and then I interviewed those moms to find out more about bento.
But now I want to ask an overarching question: what do you all think, generally, about making kids’ food cute? I’m not talking so much about bento now, which is a culinary art form in Japan that, according to Wikipedia, traces back to the 1100’s. I’m talking about the more mundane stuff that parents resort to in an effort to get their kids — particularly stubborn toddlers — to eat: heart-shaped sandwiches, pancake teddy bears, broccoli “trees” and the rest.
My kid-and-food guru Ellyn Satter (the one who’s all about the division of responsibility between parent and child when it comes to food), has written about making food cute. I skimmed my Satter books this morning and couldn’t find the quote, but suffice it to say, she feels that if a parent is putting that much time and effort into trying to entice a child to eat, he/she needs to consider whether he/she has crossed the line of responsibility. On the other hand, I can hear parents asking, what’s the harm? If a picky eater is more likely to eat cucumber slices if they’re cut into little flower shapes, why not?
So here we go with another of my (admittedly lame) TLT polls . . . I’ll post the results in this week’s Friday Buffet.
Stephanie says
Making food cute to get the kids eat the food is fine. BUT once they stop fighting eating the food, then the cuteness needs to stop.
Bri says
I’m more in the camp of “if it’s cute for cute’s sake, then fine” — meaning that I’m not above cutting out my kids’ pancakes in heart shapes on Valentine’s Day, or making Christmas-tree shaped sandwiches when my 4 year old is in a festive mood. To me, that’s just part of fun presentation and is the kind of thing that I will reserve for, say, a night when we’re out and the kids are eating with a babysitter, so they have something that makes their evening feel special. But the idea that food NEEDS to be cute for a kid to eat it does make me hesitant. Is cute, or at the very least, nice presentation an integral part of the food experience? It should be. We all eat with our eyes first. But once you start down the slippery slope of cutting out all the veggies to look like the Backyardigans, I wonder if you’ve started to lose some perspective on parental roles.
Annie says
I agree with Bri’s comment as well.
I’m ALL about edible art (art projects in general really) especially if the act of making the art is shared. It’s fun to create edible art with your kiddos: allows you to explore creativity, experiment with new foods, and gives the kids joy in creating (for themselves) a delicious, exciting and HEALTHY snack!
As a former babysitter, I applaud any Mom who wants to leave a cool activity while they are out on their date – helps make everybody happy!
bettina elias siegel says
Annie! Welcome to TLT! So glad to have you here. What Annie doesn’t say is that she was OUR former babysitter, and much beloved and missed. 🙂 Bettina
Karen says
Oh, Annie, we miss you too!
Karen says
I’m with Bri.
For what it’s worth, I have a hard time eating food that’s “cute.” Radish roses? Too pretty to bite! Gingerbread man? Scary!
Bri says
Ha ha ha Karen — you just reminded me of how creeped out I used to be in my camp counselor days, when the kids would eat animal crackers and take great pleasure in biting off their little heads. (Or the more masochistic older boys…they’d bite the legs off first and then pretend the cracker was pleading for its life!)
Donna says
Ditto on Bri’s comment. For young kids, I occasionally used cookie cutters to make a lunch fun. This was partly done to make use of the otherwise idle cookie cutters and partly just to jazz up a lunch, especially during holiday times (dreidle-shaped pb&j, anyone?). Only time cute food was used was for the tortilla man – broccoli hair, cherry tomato eyes, …you get the picture.
Em says
I don’t think it has to be over-the-top cute like the bento examples, but a little cute makes for eye appeal, which is important for anyone. When I was little, my mom would cut broccoli stems before she steamed them, making “legs” that I adored. That took her minimal extra time, plus made cooking time more even, and I’m a lifelong broccoli-lover, so it defintiely worked. But there’s definitely a line, as Ms. Satter says. Ditto food for adults. There’s no reason to spend hours making ANYONE’s food really fancy if you’re a regular person, but we do eat with our eyes first.
bettina elias siegel says
I totally agree with Em, Karen, Donna and Bri (whose comment about veggies as Backyardigans made me laugh out loud). As with all things, everything in moderation. It’s just that with little kids, sometimes you can easily fall into a trap. Like one day, just for fun, I dressed up one of my kids’ banana slices with a little whipped cream and cinnamon and now he always wants it that way and is far less enthusiastic about eating a plain banana. Huge mistake. I know that cuteness is not the same as fatty-whipped-cream goodness, but you get the idea. – Bettina
Em says
Heck, I’d prefer almost anything with whipped cream on it….
Michele Hays says
Color me ambivalent. I have a problem with “get them to eat.” As a big fan of Ellyn Satter, it’s up to them to eat – and I’m uncomfortable with creating a the gap between “adult” foods and “kid” foods even if it’s only visual.
That being said, making lunch into a joint craft project is a great way to get your kid involved – and that’s a good thing. After all, even adult foods are garnished and prettied up – think tomato and radish roses and the carved fruit at sushi restaurants. If your motive is purely to have fun, I don’t see the harm.
Megan (@MissHealth) says
I think it is fine to make food cute, as long as it is just making it into shapes, etc. I do not, however, support hiding the food until it is unrecognizable – such as mashing up carrots and hiding them in the cheese sauce of mac and cheese, or in nacho sauce like Jamie Oliver does.
I think if making the food cute gets them to eat it initially, eventually they’ll become accustomed to the taste and be conditioned to eat healthy food, and when they are older they won’t need the cute food food anymore.
But if you HIDE the healthy food, then they’ll never understand what they are eating, or get used to eating veggies, etc.
susan tang says
First off, making food cute takes very little time with a bit of practice. Secondly, I enjoy doing it. It’s no different than knitting or any other sort of crafting. I might even dare to say that I find it relaxing.
Most importantly though, I prefer the mommy marketing of healthy foods over the sort of marketing companies like Lunchables does to promote garbage.
Kids like food that is tasty and nice to look at, just like adults. Our bentos have grown with us, and will continue to evolve as the kids age.
Bettina Elias Siegel says
Susan: I confess I never once thought of cute food as a weapon in the mom’s arsenal against the intense marketing directed at children. I always thought of it from an Ellyn Satter point of view, i.e., maybe too much involvement in trying to get your kid to eat something. You’ve opened my mind! Does this mean I need to go out and buy a set of adorable cookie cutters?