Are your kids eating dinner everynight?

1. 59

   mother of threeposted 10 years ago

   Each night as we sat down to eat dinner together I feel the storm clouds rolling in. My 3 year old has a select food group in which he will eat from and that is junk. My 6 year old is at the stage that you wonder what keeps him alive because you can't remember the last time food entered his mouth. As for my 10 year old she's at the stage that it must come from McDonalds or Arby's to qualify as something she'll eat. So each day I rack my brain trying to come up with ideas to get food into their mouths without holding them down to do it.
      After battle after battle I realized that something was going to have to give because I was sure to go crazy if it continued. I decided to have a food party with them. I made a sample serving of everything I could dream up. I even let them have input on the food. They were allowed to choose two foods that they loved and I fixed it. To my surprise they liked the food that I thought were for adult taste buds only. My six year old loved shrimp scampi, my ten year old loved roast beef with potatoes and carrots, and my three year old loved the fresh veggie platter. I was shocked!!
      I don't fix these things everynight for dinner but when I choose no battle at all chicken tacos are sure to hit the spot.

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2. 59

   thranaxposted 10 years ago

   Lol awww. I know I had no trouble growing up eating. I liked a lot of things. Maybe its this tolerance that I like to cook now. Kids can be hard to buy food for but my parents had a pretty descent philosophy. We will make it, and we will make sure something you 100% don't like isn't there (example Mustard, I still hate it.) And I had the choice, I ate that food or I didn't eat. The food they made was great, they didn't allow me to get too picky.

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3. 68

   elisabeth reidposted 10 years ago

   I know it sounds pat and it probably sounds mean, but I don't give my kids a choice.  There are too many of them and too few of me, so I cook what I cook and they either eat it or they don't.  If they don't, there aren't any alternate selections or snacks, though.  No changing their minds an hour or two later, either, 'cause it'll be gone by then.  They all fought it a time or two but then they learned to eat what I cooked, when I cooked it.  I'm kinda mean that way but they all learned early on to eat what was on their plate, whether they liked it or not.  My only concession was with #2 son...who absolutely loathed meat loaf when he was little.  The idea would reduce him to tears and eating it would practically make him gag.
   
   So I stopped calling it meat loaf, started calling it 'hamburger roast' (the rest of the kids were in on it) and...lo and behold...suddenly the boy was asking for seconds.
   
   Otherwise...to keep the fussing to a minimum, I simply started all the kids on strained veggies when they went on solid foods -- no fruits or desserts at all until they'd gone through all the veggies I could find.  By then, they didn't especially like the sweet stuff and my dinner confrontations have been minimal.

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