It’s the Same Crap You Like.
The kids don’t like change. I don’t like change, so it is not particularly surprising to me that the kids would also prefer that everything always stay the same.
So when it was announced, years ago, that eating Greek yogurt was better for health than eating plain, sugary yogurt, Bill and I switched to Greek yogurt. It has a more bitter taste, akin to sour cream or cream cheese, but with vanilla flavoring and/or the terribly unhealthy “fruit on the bottom,” it is quite edible.
The kids will only eat yogurt with “no chunks,” though, so we couldn’t even sway them to try the fruity kind.
I realized that most of the world had switched when I could barely find the “old” yogurt at the store. Greek yogurt had replaced nearly every brand in the store. I tried again to have them eat Greek yogurt (vanilla! no chunks!) and Shane did get it down. But only once – and then he said he would “rather not” eat it again. Dylan wouldn’t even try.
Last week, I went to the store and their “old” yogurt had been replaced – not by Greek, but by “custard style.” It came in a new cup, which was shaped like most of the Greek yogurt cups, but inside was the same sugary junk they’d always eaten.
So I put a note inside each lunchbox:
this is NOT greek yogurt
the yoplait people are trying to make their yogurt LOOK like greek yogurt so people will think it’s healthy
it’s not. it’s the same crap you like, just in a different cup
enjoy!
With the note intact, I hoped they would, at least, give it a try.
Shane came home with his yogurt uneaten. To be fair, he’d barely eaten any of his lunch because he’d had to retake a math test at lunchtime.
Shane can try again next week.
Dylan came home and, while cleaning out his lunchbox, reminded me about the note.
“My friends thought this was really funny,” he said. “People took pictures of it and put it on their stories. And it was on, like, six different Instagrams today.”
So I got my point across!
Best of all, Dylan ate the yogurt. And of course, it was delicious.