The impulses of children end up driving the food choices for the whole family.

How? By being kids of course! And it works.

Seventy-five percent of unplanned food purchases can be traced to a nagging child. One out two mothers will buy food because a child requests it. As kids don’t usually demand to eat more broccoli, the foods the family ends up eating are nutritionally poor and fattening. You as an adult may be having weight problems because of the food your kids demand. And the food isn’t doing your kids any good either.

Kids Do Not Have Adult Minds

It’s easy for adults to treat kids as small adults. Many kids look physically grown up and may act very worldly and mature, but it’s all an act. Brain researchers have found that the human brain doesn’t fully mature until about age 25!

The front part of the brain is the last to mature. This area, the prefrontal cortex, is responsible for rational thought and provides skills like organizing thoughts, weighing consequences, assuming responsibility and interpreting emotions. It’s the part of your brain that helps you do the harder thing when you are ready to do the easier thing.

Kids simply don’t have the brain power to seek delayed gratification or to predict the far-reaching consequences of their actions. Kids are not trying to be moody, reckless, and irrational. Rather it’s just that the part of their brain controlling these skills is still under construction.

This helps to explain all the stupid things we did as kids and whatever stupid things your kids may be doing now. Kids in the company of their friends are far more likely to engage in risky behaviors. Kids seek out immediate rewards and excitement, avoid stress and seek out easy situations.

What does this mean? You can’t trust your kid to decide what your family should eat. They aren’t mature enough to make those decisions. If you let them then your whole family will suffer.