Care and Feeding: Is it fair to demand that an elementary schooler abstain from eating the junk food that all her friends are eating?

Dear Care and Feeding : Is it fair to demand that an elementary schooler abstain from eating junk food that all her friends are eating? Don't set your child up to fail if you demand that she turn her face away from Fruit By the Foot in favor of the hummus and lettuce wraps in her lunchbox.

The key is that you’re framing it in terms of the decisions and giving her the power to choose healthy food.

A 12-year-old nephew has a serious attitude problem and can't follow the simplest rules, writes Care and Feeding .

His cousin " Kristin " and " Sam " moved near us after Kristin had a bad breakup.

Kristin accused me of bullying her son and said I had no right to discipline her son.

I told her she is welcome to switch arrangement and she can stay at home with the kids and deal with Sam .

You’ll surely be forced to deal with Sam again, no matter how ironclad you believe your no-Sam policy to be.

You should get together with Kristin and your wife for a summit. Acknowledge you didn’t handle this situation as well as you would have liked to.