oh, I wish it were that easy. Osmosis sounds like the way to go, but my wife and I both eat and cook well, and he just likes to eat the cheapest junk. He says he doesn’t like home cooking, which is a shame, since my wife is a wonderful cook. His preferences run to preserved meats, white bread and candy.
He’s been with us for a year-and-a-half, and the osmosis hasn’t even started to take.
Now, I’m starting to buy him sugary foods that are better than the candy he buys himself. I give him sweet granola and nut bars for his walk to school in hopes of displacing his usual breakfast of a candy bar.
He’ll only be with us another 6-9 months, and I feel panicky that he needs so many life skills to live independently (even at college) and I’m running out of time.
I still need to teach him: thrift, budgeting, how to do laundry (we have been working on this one for 15 months), how to keep a datebook and a checkbook, etc. That’s just the top of the list.
He is a slender, healthy-looking boy, in apparent good health now, but I worry about the sheer amount of white sugar he eats every day, some days close to a pound.
He’s a nice kid and most days I am very fond of him and care for his future. We talk a lot and have a good relationship, but as with many teenagers, he knows everything and there’s nothing he can learn from me.