My New Normal: Pineapple Kale Smoothies - I Love It When I'm Wrong

I read A LOT of parenting books. A lot. Probably too many. Anyway, my recent favorite is Positive Discipline for Preschoolers. It came recommended by Will's preschool for next year, and it's amazing. It's built on the premise that parents need to be kind but firm with their children, and that many of us go back and forth between being kind without enough firmness (letting our kids walk all over us) or being too firm without enough kindness (erring on the side of strictness).

This book is one of the first books I've read that's given me confidence in every parenting situation. By just repeating the "kind but firm" mantra in my head, I am better able to decide how to respond to each situation. Before, I felt like I read so many parenting books that I was unable to decide in a given moment how to apply the advice, or what the author of the book would tell me to do.

The book had a lot of chapters that summarized concisely the advice on a given topic that I'd read whole books on, and wouldn't have needed to, if I'd just read this book first.

I would recommend this book to any parent, grandparent, or teacher of small children.

But I digress. This is about pineapple kale smoothies.

looks disgusting, right? that's because it's HALF KALE.

The chapter in the book about preschoolers and eating mentions that kids are much more likely to try new foods that they've had a hand in preparing themselves. (I've read this a lot of places, and I know it to be true, but it can be hard to let Will assist in food preparation when Andrew inevitably wants to help, too, and they end up pushing each other on the stool and fighting over kitchen spoons.)

One of the anecdotes in the book is about a preschool teacher that had kids make pineapple kale smoothies. The ones involved in the preparation tried them, said they were great, and went back for more. The kids in the class next door who hadn't been involved wouldn't touch the stuff.

Hah, cute story, I thought. There's NO WAY that Will would drink a pineapple kale smoothie, even if I let him make the entire thing himself. That's the most stereotypical, new age healthy mom, trying way too hard, why don't we eat chia seeds, oh my goodness bread is bad for you, kind of drink you could make.

So I decided to try it. I googled "pineapple kale smoothie" and got about 3,700 recipe results. (No seriously, this sounds disgusting, but it's totally a thing. There are A LOT of recipes online for this.)

I took the number of recipes to mean I could do whatever I wanted, so we dumped a can of pineapple juice in the blender with some ice and kale and Will zinged the @#*$) out of it.

And then he drank it. All of it.

Wow. I love it when I'm wrong.