Do you remember when kids didn’t snack and eat all day long?  Back when I was a kid we always heard “Don’t eat that now, you’ll spoil your supper!” Now, I have noticed that kids eat all day every day! You can’t go anywhere without a snack. I was thinking of this and all the families I know that struggle getting their kids to eat at meal time and I remembered the Marshmallow Test.

It was a simple experiment by Stanford University where they gave 4 year old kids a marshmallow and told them that they could eat the Marshmallow now or wait 15 minutes and they would receive another marshmallow. So then they could have two…a simple test of delayed gratification. the funny thing is that 2 out of 3 of the kids ate the marshmallow right away! Only 1 out of 3 was able to wait…but the most interesting part of the experiment to me was the follow up when the kids were in college.

Those who ate the marshmallow right away tended to be moody, indecisive, envious and prone to jealousy while all those who waited scored 250 points higher on SAT tests, they were cooperative and good under pressure, and they were confident and self reliant.
I wonder what we do to our kids by letting them snack and eat whenever they want instead of having them wait for scheduled meal times? I wonder of eating meals would be less “challenging” if the kids came to the table hungry knowing that once they are down from the table they have no food again until breakfast? Maybe it is time for another kind of test?!

This week for Meal Planning Monday, will be having…
Potato Corn Chowder and Tofu Egg Salad
Chili Potatoes
Easy Bean Quesadillas
Spaghetti

Ending with a great leftover buffet!