(UNINOVE - 2014)Of the many battlegrounds on which

(UNINOVE - 2014)

Of the many battlegrounds on which one fights in a family, food is one of the most poisonous – which is ironic, since it is meant to be all about nutrition. There are many fronts to this war, but the most fundamental is getting your children to eat what you want them to eat rather than what they want to eat. This is most poignantly represented in literature in Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections when one of the main characters tries to teach his son to eat his food. He makes him stay at the table until he finishes it, but then forgets about him and goes to bed, leaving him stubbornly stranded until the small hours.

The idea of forcing children to finish their broccoli, or beans, or whatever green object it happens to be, is one that most parents try sooner or later. That is how they find out that it doesn’t work. Nothing, in fact, works. And it is my view that the more you bully your child into eating the “right” food, the more likely you are to end up with a teenager with food issues because they are likely to come to associate eating with stress.

(www.theguardian.com)

No trecho do 1.º parágrafo – Of the many battlegrounds on which one fights in a family –, a palavra which refere-se a