Memories are still quite vivid of my mom repeating this mantra to me over and over again during my homeschool journey as a child. Whenever I would be tempted to give up or frustrated, she would start reciting this little poem until I found myself doing it without her prompting.
That habit still remains. Thanks mom, although back then I never imagined I would be saying it…
I’ve found it more than applicable during these motherhood years which makes me wonder if she spoke that poem as much to herself as she did trying to help us embrace that mindset. Because much of motherhood, for me at least, is trying to wrap my brain around each of my beautifully unique children. Which boils down to a whole lot of try, try agains… It would be far easier if they were all the same. But I guess it is a lot more exciting this way, right?
Today, I thought about this poem as it applies to the area of shaping our children’s tastes for good, nourishing food.
My boys aren’t crazy about kale, or butternut squash. They eat it because we expect them to. But although the pomegranate really weirded them out the first couple of times I offered it to them, they grew to love it! I have a hard time keeping little fingers out of the bowl as I get it ready!
Which reminds me of the poem. If at first you don’t succeed; try, try again. It is a great mantra to use when introducing and re-introducing new foods to our kids. Just as in marketing where it takes, on average, 7 contacts between a buyer and seller before the buyer feels comfortable enough to do business with the seller {The Rule of 7}, we need to be offering good food to our kids over and over and over again. Low and behold, chances are they might just learn to like it. And even if they don’t learn to like it during childhood, there’s still a good chance they’ll grow into it come adulthood. My mom told me that would happen with bell peppers, mushrooms and onions. Despite my vehement childhood denials, her predictions came true. Now beets. blech. still.
So take heart and be sure to try, try again!
You’d love the book, French kids eat everything : how our family moved to France, learned to love vegetables, banished snacking, and discovered 10 magic rules for raising healthy, happy eaters by Karen Le Billon. Such interesting insights when comparing American culture with the French. Got a little of that from Chef Fucachon when he spoke at the Vision Forum food conference last summer as well.
We’ve been serving homemade fermented foods every day for the last month or so and just ate them ourselves (the 5 of us who are teen/adult), talking about how good they tasted (altho we weren’t so sure about that ourselves 🙂 and how good they were for us (which is definitely true!). The little boys (5 and 7) asked to try it last night and both said “we love sauerkraut!!!!” They also like the “candy bars” we make with fermented dates, smoothies made with kefir, and plain yogurt with fresh fruit but the dinner items are a new breakthrough!
Wonderful. That saying is a more positive version of my motto, “Anything worth doing is worth doing badly.” It takes courage to keep trying and failing until you succeed. You are encouraging!