When you become a parent, you are charged with many things. You are to keep your children safe, teach them right from wrong and take care of them, among other things. One of the things that parents need to be aware of is the health of our children. I must confess to being a part of a wide scale parenting hypocrisy when it comes to my children. I’ll give you some examples that I have been guilty of myself:

-You make your kids eat a vegetable at every meal (fruit for breakfast). They just have to. Yet you won’t dish out green beans onto your own plate.

-You tell the kids no candy or sugar before bed, yet I used to eat a bowl of ice cream every single night, in bed before sleeping.

-You tell the kids to go play outside, that the TV will rot her brain out, as you sit in front of the TV watching an entire marathon of Ghost Hunters, or Flip That House.

-For a snack, your children must have something fairly healthy, while moms snack might consist of a Snickers bar.

-Your kids usually have to have milk, water or juice for meals, yet you would down a huge Sprite in front of them at one sitting.

My point is that if our children learn by example, then part of our job as parents is to take care of ourselves. I have ceased all of that type of attitude, the “I’m the adult, I can do what I want” when it comes to eating and exercising. Leading by example means that we are out there, doing what we are supposed to be doing, in the hopes that our children will follow in our path.

So pile on the green beans moms and dads, break into the grapefruit and run that extra mile, because it’s your job!