We all want to instil healthy eating habits in our kids.
And one mum has been praised on TikTok after she wrote a note to her daughter's teacher following an incident at lunchtime.
Business owner Caroline - who runs Pezzi which makes mealtime utensils for small children and goes by @pezzi.shop on TikTok - told followers that her daughter had come home from pre-school explaining she hadn't been allowed to eat any of her 'bad' foods (a cookie) before she had finished her 'good' foods, which consisted of a sandwich and some cucumber.
Upset over what her little girl had been told, Caroline explained she felt frustrated and wanted to write the teacher a note to explain that there are no 'good or bad' foods.
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"I felt a little frustrated by the antiquated instruction from the teacher, but I told my daughter: 'Well that's silly. There are no good foods or bad foods. Food is just food'," she said.
"Three years old. At three years old someone has told her that foods are good or bad.
"I am so proud that she had sensed something was off - to know that was not right enough to tell me about it. We talk about it all the time at home.
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"If you only eat carrots or broccoli your body won’t have protein it needs to grow strong muscles. If you only eat chicken, your body won’t have enough energy to do things like run and play all day long.
"We need little bits of everything to make sure that we are able to learn and play and grow all day long."
Caroline felt so strongly that she decided to leave her daughter's teacher a note.
"Hi! Evelyn has our permission to eat lunch in any order she chooses," the note read.
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"None of her foods are 'good' or 'bad' - they are just food! Thanks!"
And the mum was hugely praised for her reaction, with one teacher writing: "Your response is the 100% right. The narrative of 'good' & 'bad' food can actually encourage harmful eating habits to develop.
"Way back when I was in kindergarten my teacher sent out a letter encouraging parents to only send healthy 'good' food & to limit 'bad' food & 'treats' to only 1-2 lunches a week.
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"My mom purposely sent a lunch entirely of 'bad' food in response."
Meanwhile another added: "My first graders always ask if they can eat dessert first and i always tell them they can eat the food in any order they want as long as they eat!"
And a third wrote: "My toddler will usually eat the fruit first and move on to the other food. Every kid is different and this old way of thinking has to be stopped."
Topics: Parenting, Food and Drink
Lucy Devine