‘It’s not realistic to be as strict about treats as Mum’
Lucy Hamper, 37, is a property developer and part-time model. She is single and lives in London with her son Carter, nine. Her mother is Penny Hamper, 62, a receptionist, who is divorced and lives in Hertfordshire.
Lucy says: piled high with crisps, chocolate and sweets for my son carter, the tuck cupboard in my kitchen goes against everything my mother believes in. i can still hear her gasp of horror when she first looked inside the cupboard and learnt it was all for carter.
although i’ve always been conscious of feeding my son nutritious meals, it’s not realistic to be as strict about treats as Mum was when i was a child. she’s always been into clean eating and when my sister and i were kids, we weren’t allowed red meat, anything cooked with oil or salt and certainly no ‘tuck’.
there weren’t any snacks and family meals were usually a piece of fish with boiled potatoes.
Ultimately, Mum’s strict regime has stood me in good stead. But when i had carter, i was adamant i’d have a more relaxed attitude to his diet. carter plays rugby and when he gets home from school, he’s ravenous. i’ll give him a snack of carrots and houmous and if he wants crisps, he can have them. i’m teaching him a healthy attitude to food. it’s not something to obsess over or turn into an enemy. carter never complains when he eats at Mum’s, but dives straight into the cupboard when he gets home, which tells me everything.