Little People With Big Things to Say: An Interview With Almost 10-Year Old Mika Botkin
Written by admin on May 31, 2010 – -
I’ve interviewed a lot of incredible people in my day, but recently I had the opportunity to interview a courageous young woman about her thoughts and feelings on the subject of “raw food” and “Raw Moms”.
At the end of this short 10 minute interview, I asked Mika what advice she had for moms listening to this call. I think you’ll be pleased with her response. She certainly surprised me with her answer to the questions: “When you are a mom, what are you going to feed your kids?”
We put a lot of attention on what the grown-ups have to say about food and eating and we figured it was about time we put some attention on what the little voices have to share. The more we understand how they view their experiences with the meals and food we prepare, the better equipped we are for understanding them.
Mika has sage advice for parents, so listen in and let us know what you think of this little interview.
{mp3}MikaMom{/mp3}
More Great Stuff for Kids Coming Soon
We’re currently working on our Monkey Mike website so that kids will have more opportunities to inform themselves about fresh food and healthy living. Watch for more about that this summer.
Raw Mom Director, Fiona Hollis and Raw Mom Kristen Froelich are also working on producing a series of lesson plans that moms around the world will be able to bring to their local schools to help educate and inform school children in a fun and playful way about the importance of eating more fruits and vegetables. There are some exciting things coming, so stay tuned.
What Do Your Kids Have to Say?
If you’d like to take the time to interview your little ones and find out what BIG things they have to say, we’d love to hear from you. Whether on video, audio or even an in-print transcript of your cozy conversations. Let’s work together to understand how they feel so we can find the right tools and solutions to get the whole family on the fast track to healthy living.
Love and support,
Mika’s Mom
aka Tera
Carissa Leventis-Cox’s 3 yr old: Has his say!
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Tags: do raw kids want to eat meat?, mika botkin, raw kids
Posted in Raw Food for Families | 10 Comments »
10 Responses
to “Little People With Big Things to Say: An Interview With Almost 10-Year Old Mika Botkin”
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- Nov 18, 2011: Raw-Fusion & Healthy Cooked Food Compromises | The Tera Warner Blog
By Joanne on May 31, 2010
Tera, Mika is just adorable.
I can tell she feels comfortable being honest with you, yet is sensitive to how you feel, too! Great to hear the thoughts of children who are brought up to eat a little differently to most people – I know my girls sometimes would prefer to eat what many other kids are eating (and sometimes they do try those foods), yet at the same time they’re so educated about healthy eating that it wouldn’t feel right to them to eat that way all the time.
Mika did a great job – maybe she can have her own radio show? I loved the smooch at the end…
Love Jo
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By Nichole on Jun 1, 2010
What a great interview. Thanks! By the way, is the bean dip Mika mentioned available anywhere? We are new at eating high raw and I would love to add this in for my sons.
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By Karen on Jun 2, 2010
That was great. All though I am now just getting into the raw scene, my children are joining up slowly. It was nice to hear Mika’s take since she has been raised this way. Mine are continually making healthier choices because I do give them a little liberty. Thanks for all the wonderful information you pass on.
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By Sonya on Jun 5, 2010
This is such a sweet interview! I really enjoyed listening. Thank you, Mika, for sharing your point of view. It is so refreshing to hear your young voice. And the kiss at the end is just precious!
xoxo
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By Lauren M on Jun 12, 2010
Mika, thank you! You spoke so eloquently. My daughter and I also have different ideas on hamburgers. She had a cheeseburger recently and said it’s the best lunch ever! haha! But at the same time she thanked me for teaching her about eating good food and for reading a learning about health. It’s difficult to navigate in our society in many facets, but especially with food. She also gets a lot of ews at lunch and her classmates tell her her sliced peppers smell bad when we know they don’t. It doesn’t stop her from eating them though, so that’s good! I told her she eats differently from most children and I’m proud of her for eating the fruits and vegetables I provide because many children, including myself when I was young, won’t try different produce.
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By Simone Fesel-N. on Jun 13, 2010
Thank you both for this interview !
It was very interesting and refreshing to hear what you think on this subjekt Mika, also nice to listen the way you asked, Tera.
Greetings
Simone F-N.
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By Jessica on Jun 18, 2010
If you listen to this interview a few times, you can clearly hear that your daughter is trying to tell you that she is HUNGRY for a hamburger, meat and spaghetti. (And when she admits that what she wants to eat, she is actually BLAMED for not eating ENOUGH raw food!) She likes fruits and vegetables, but she wants to have MORE freedom to choose the food she eats, without the morality/ethics/guilt trip.
You can also hear that she REALLY wants her mom to LOVE and ACCEPT her, so she’s willing to compromise herself and what SHE wants to eat to have her mother’s approval. (Which is why she says she will feed her kids the same way.)
I think it’s great that people want their children to eat lots of raw fruits and vegetables. I do too. But when it reaches this point of control – where a child is NOT allowed to eat certain foods, has to regurgitate her mother’s dietary philosophy back to her, and has to endure taunting from children at school because of her food – and it’s hard for a mother to simply HEAR her daughter clearly because of her own commitments to HERSELF, then it can become very unhealthy.
Consider it.
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By Tera on Oct 10, 2010
Hey, Jessica.
Thanks for your comments.
What you don’t hear on this interview is Mika saying how hamburgers make her feel AFTER she eats them, what they do to her psoriasis. I know cocaine addicts that get HUNGRY for cocaine, but doesn’t mean I’m going to give it to them. We DO let Mika eat meat on occasion and to the degree that it doesn’t compromise my personal values and her general health. However, we’ve investigated enough about nutrition to know that her cravings for food do not necessarily correspond with nutritional “need”. (And yes, we have had her tested.)
One week out of two she lives with her dad, and I can’t really control what he puts in the lunches, but for the record, her lunches are pretty cool and have made her some friends recently — doesn’t mean other people won’t find sushi, or nori or other things she actually enjoys “strange.”
Also, Mika has at different times suffered from some crippling cases of psoriasis. While I do appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts, I’m not convinced you’ve got the complete picture of our family dynamic after a 5 minute interview.
All love and good wishes,
Tera
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By Bernita Mithell on Dec 9, 2010
Hey! Thank you! I constantly needed to write on my site something like that. Can I implement a portion of your post to my blog?
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