When you want your kids to eat their fruits and vegetables and you just don’t have the time, energy or patience to cook and blend broccoli or zucchini into a puree and then sneak those veggies into food, the struggle is real.
But one mom may have found the secret to getting kids to eat their veggies in a very simple way. She shared her healthy food hack in a now-viral Facebook post, and it may be the solution we’ve all been looking for.
Jane Stine recently moved back to the United States from abroad and took her 3-year-old son to the grocery store when she saw various items with cartoon branding on them. And this gave her an a-ha moment.
“A few weeks ago, we bought a pineapple, and the pineapple has a tag that says Frozen 2. I was like, ‘These two things couldn’t have anything less to do with each other! What is happening?!” she told TODAY Parents. “So, I just decided if they’re going to stick Frozen 2 on a pineapple, I can stick whatever I want on the stuff we’re going to buy.”
She realized that the grocery store and food production companies are using marketing skills to get parents to buy things for their kids. And she decided that she was going to follow suit.
Stine posted her “best parenting hack” to Facebook stating, “You know how kids always want Paw Patrol yogurt or Disney waffles or whatever? Bring your own stickers to the grocery store and start sticking.” She continues, “Today we’re having Winnie the Pooh brand spaghetti squash. It goes perfectly with Toy Story broccoli.”
The post has been shared over 100,000 times, with comments praising the clever idea and expressing gratitude that they haven’t had to deal with the issue. The mom told TODAY Parents that a ton of folks had said to her that they’re glad their kid doesn’t “need” this, but she says it’s fun, too.
“They don’t need it,” she explained. “It’s just a fun thing to do. They’re only little kids for a short amount of time, and if you do something, a regular chore, and can make it a little more fun and it basically costs nothing, why not?”
But there’s also another reason behind her hack.
“I learned about a study out of Cornell that suggests it might actually be really effective,” she says, referencing a study from 2012, in which researchers found kids were more likely to add an apple to their school lunch if it featured an Elmo sticker on it.
There’s nothing more satisfying than outsmarting your kids for a good cause, is there?
