Why do I have to eat my vegetables?

I hated vegetables when I was a child, too. I think God set kids up to dislike vegetables because we all have to learn to do things we don't like to do. If we start with little things, like vegetables, it is easier to learn to do the hard things, like hugging the people we're mad at. When you get all grown up, you'll discover that you like vegetables after all, and that it really is possible to be very angry with someone and still hug him!

The amazing thing is that vegetables, which almost everybody dislikes, have the power to help our bodies grow strong and healthy - but candy, which everybody loves, only has the power to rot our teeth!

One reader wrote to me complaining because in this answer, I acknowledge that children hate vegetables. She felt it was wrong to let a child know that anyone might hate vegetables. My feeling is that it is wrong to set a child up to think his feelings and tastes are "bad" or "wrong" - which is exactly what happens when you deny his feelings and tastes. Each parent has to do what s/he thinks best, of course, so I would only plead with you to not tell your child that everyone loves veggies when you know better than that. It will only set him up to think there is something wrong with him because he does not like them.