Is crust-cutting a way indulgent parents spoil their kids or is it a gift parents give their children to make them happy?
In other words, is crust-cutting caving or caring? Is it innocuous or destructive? What do you think?
Personally, I have always been a crust person. I have always loved the crust. And not just on toast. If you can think of apple peel as crust, then imagine small-me biting my way around an apple and then returning the naked innards to my mother. To this day I know my husband loves me when he leaves me the crust on his pizza.
So maybe it won’t be a surprise when I tell you I don’t support crust-cutting. But not for the reason you think.
Let me start by saying, I’m all for occasional crust-cutting. It can be cute.
When my daughter was in the cut-out-sandwich stage of development I cut off a lot of crusts. They weren’t called for artistically.
(If you knew how artistically-challenged I am you would know how laughable that last sentence is.)
But here’s what makes me anti-crust-cutting in general.
Regular crust-cutting feels like it empowers kids but it does the opposite.
Regular crust-cutting teaches kids that they need to have their crusts cut off before they can eat their toast, their sandwich or their pizza. It also teaches kids that you need them to eat. Read The Power of the Imperfect Pretzel
Just because I don’t support regular crust-cutting doesn’t mean I think kids have to eat crusts.
To the contrary. Let your kids eat their crusts or not eat their crusts, but teach them to solve their own problem. They can eat right up to the crust. They can take a plastic knife and cut off the crust.
It’s not the crust that’s the problem. It’s the demand.
~Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits.~
For more about this idea read The Curse of the Broken Pretzel and Cutting Toast Triangles & Cucumber Squares?
