One woman's journey through life as a mom.
This week’s topic of the week (TOTW) is going to be about our children’s opinions and how much we think their opinions should count in regards to what they wear, what they eat, what they do, etc. We all know that kids go through phases. One week they may only want to eat broccoli and the next week they hate broccoli and only want to eat pretzels. They might want to wear a purple shirt with green pants and yellow rain boots to school. Does it matter to you?
Personally it is very important to me for my child to have as much control over his life as reasonable and possible. If he wants to wear an orange shark shirt with non-matching blue and green shark shorts and striped caterpillar rain boots out in public, of course I will let him. And yes, that was an actual outfit my son wore to Target and the grocery store one day. It was very cute, I might add. 
As far as eating, I do not believe in forcing him to eat anything he does not want to eat. I won’t feed him ice cream and cookies all day despite it is what he has asked for quite a few times, but I will not make him eat brussel sprouts and carrots if he hates them. What I do is offer him a variety of foods, including some that I know he likes. His taste changes week to week anyway, so it’s always a crap shoot.
Basically I am pretty relaxed as far as what I will let him do. He is his own person and I respect that. He has his own opinions, his own likes and dislikes and I can’t even imagine forcing him to inhibit those preferences.
Please join in the discussion and let us know how much your child’s opinion counts. Where does it count the most and where do you draw the line?
