Very often I hear myself telling patients that my advice is “easier said than done”. A fact which I know to be true…because while sometimes it’s super easy for me to give the advice at work when I put my dietitian hat on, it’s SOOOOO much more difficult to follow through on when I walk through my front door and my dietitian hat is quickly replaced by my mama hat. So trust me- I hear you!
Just a couple of days ago my husband and I took our children to visit a couple friend right before their bed time. I had taken along sandwiches for them and the other components of a balanced dinner, but of course while sitting around the table, out came the cookies, followed by other snacks which basically meant that my kids ate Oreos for dinner. We took them home for bedtime but then it took my son over an hour to fall asleep…..and of course in my mommy brain that HAD to be because he was hungry from not eating dinner.
So when he didn’t seem to be hungry for breakfast the next morning even when faced with a plate of his favourite French toast my mind started going to all of the backup meals that I should totally start making because- let’s be honest- to a mama there is nothing worse than being faced with the thought that your kiddo might be hungry. I mean, I may as well be walking around with a red F for failure on my forehead.
So in that moment, it took all of my willpower to take off my mama hat and respond with my dietitian hat. To remember that it was okay if my child skipped a meal or two (or replaced a meal with Oreos) and there was no need to rip apart my kitchen trying to find anything that I thought they would eat as much as I wanted to.
So as much as “easier said than done” sounds like just something to say- I say it because I know it’s true. I say it because I know that while I’m often seeing parents when they’re at the end of their ropes, when in my office they are willing to promise their right arm if it will help improve their meal time, I know that we all go home at the end of the day. I say it because I know that no matter what hat we wear throughout the day, we all put on our parent hats on when we get home.I say it because while I’m a dietitian and my job is to provide nutritionally sound advice, patient centred care means that I would never give any advice that I couldn’t or wouldn’t follow myself because it’s not fair to expect more of my clients than I could reasonably expect of myself.
So when I say it’s easier said than done, I want my clients to know that I understand that it gets harder. I support my clients through it getting harder with both my dietitian and my mama hat, because let’s be honest, once you out on that mama hat you can’t really ever take it off.
