sddude you called it correctly…. Our 19 month old is smack dab in the middle of his challenging stage, asserting his independence and all… He also has his 5 month old brother so there is a bit of the jealousy thing going on… People cannot believe that he has yet to have ice cream or candy. He chugs milk and not juice… We make sure we cook a good meal every night… there is no gaurantee he eats it but he eats better then any child his age I know. One of the words in his growing vocabulary is soup plantation. My wife and I are HUGE believers that the correlation between childrens health and diet also extends to overall behavior and performance in school. We are not going to ban our children from ice cream or anything like that, however we are trying to keep them away as long as we can. We are not as good as TV as you are, however they are PBS kids… the only flaw is when I am watching them and I flick on sports… not good….I am working on it… Your point is well taken, that parenting takes so much time and effort, and pacification is the road most travelled by people, through diet, video games, tv… etc… I know we will not be perfect parents, but hopefully we will give our kids a leg up…
