Girl, you opened up a big ass can of worms and I'm walking right in! I was raised by parents who grew up hungry in the depression. That coloured their choices. That said, I was never deprived. I was a small child. I was force fed. I was given "milkshakes," more meat, etc. to "get me bigger." I was small. Not unhealthy, just small. they make children like that.

When I grew up and had my own kids, I vowed to be different. My middle son was chubby. He was tall and big for his age for the first 3 years of life. So? He was healthy, active and now is 6'4" and slender and strong.

My husband was a chubby kid. He knew it. He was advised of it and his food was restricted. Know what happens when your body doesn't get enough to eat? It goes into storage mode. He's almost 52 and still suffers from this. Everything he eats stays with him waiting for the next "famine."

It's not hard to make healthy meals. It's not hard to make it fun for kids. Shit, maybe I should write on that. It's not hard to let kids do what they do best, play. We worry so much about how our kids make us look, we forget that the goal is to raise healthy, whole people.