User Post: Are your kids making you fat?

We're on vacation and we go to McDonalds. My kids get the chicken nuggets happy meal with apple dipper and white milk. I choose the chicken snack wrap with barbeque sauce and drink bottled water. I pat myself on the back for not getting my all time favorite, Big Mac.

My five year old and three year old tear open the dippers and leave their nuggets. I stop them and say, "You have to eat your chicken first." Five minutes later, they have about 4 nuggets remaining. And what am I supposed to do? My parents say "NEVER WASTE FOOD. There are people in Africa that are starving." Am I really going to pack them away in the car and eat them later? No. I eat them because I don't want to waste food and I can't see throwing perfectly good food into the garbage.

So there goes my good intentions of just eating a snack wrap. When we're at home at the dinner table, we do have a rule which is "Don't put food on your plate that you can't eat." My kids eyes are "bigger than their stomachs" and of course there is always food left on the plate.

I remember my own mother eating three different cereals in one bowl of cereal. It was all the leftovers in each box that none of the kids wanted to eat or got tired of eating. She also would eat our leftovers from our plate. Thinking back, she ate normal portions of food but that "extra" food from the kids' plates probably contributed to her weight gain.

I am not like my father. When he used to take us kids to McDonalds, he never got food. I would ask if he was hungry, and he always said, "You guys never finish you meals. I'll eat what you don't eat." And sure enough, he would eat half a hamburger and about 2-3 chicken nuggets.

Are your kids contributing to your weight gain? Do you eat their leftovers?