Now I'm not one of those parents who makes their kids eat all their dinner. I'm not knocking them at all. Its just not my style. My rule, is the "no thank you" bite. That means, you take at least one bite of what is on your plate. And if you don't like it, you say no thank you. My theory is that they'll be hungry the rest of the night and the kitchen will be closed and that is how they will learn to eat their dinner.
Rene' is 3 now. Terrible 2's - don't hit my children. Its the 3's where you wonder why in the world you took on child rearing. Its not pretty for some reason, when my kids turn 3. Dinner last night was a simple tortilla wrap. Kudos to Andy for these - I could have bought mine in a deli for $5.95, it was soooo good. Turkey, cheese, avocado, sunflower seeds, lettuce, then lightly heated in a skillet to warm - delicious!!!Now the kids was a little more tame. Turkey, cheese, tortilla. Not asking much for a no thank you bite there - right? Wrong. Rene' was having none of that. She gobbled up here tomatoes drizzled with balsamic vinegar. And even had 2nds and 3rds on those. But I cut her off at 3rds and said she needed to eat her turkey wrap. This produced a dramatic shove of the plate and an emphatic "no". So we drug out the chips. Whoever ate their wrap, got chips. Zak and Paige happily scarfed down their wraps in order to get chips, while Rene' sat and cried. "Just one bite, Rene', that's all it takes to get chips". Another plate shove and "no". So we all finish dinner. Rene' has tried to get down from her chair about 20 times, and I've just put her back each time. I decide, this is a battle of wills. And I am soooo not losing. Then we break out the ice cream. We all sit at the table, with Rene' and eat our ice cream, while she is crying because she STILL will not take one bite of her wrap. So then I had to ponder my next move. Since I am not going to lose this battle, what do I do? Do I make her sit at the table, even if its hours, to produce one bite? She's tired, I know this, because she didn't take a nap. So I changed my strategy. I said, ok, Rene', if your done, that's fine, but your going to bed. Right now. It was 6. Through tears she screams "I want to go to bed". So I whisked her off, while the other kids got to go outside and play with dad. She got her bath, 3 books, and was in bed by 630.
Now I don't know if I won that one or not. I guess we'll see at dinner time tonight. If we have the same song, 2nd verse, I just might be coming back here to ask for some advice on this one.
The Family
The Author
- Regular, with half and half and raw sugar
- I married to the rugged man of my dreams, and have 3 little people in my house who call me mom. I just went back to work full time in the corporate world while my husband came home to raise our little ones. I love life, family, and coffee. My newest obsession is running.
5 comments:
It's hard to make that call when the kiddos are tired, I think. I honestly don't think it does much good to try to enforce things when they are so tired they can't think, so you did the best thing you could, in my opinion. Good Luck with it tonight! I know how it goes, I have a picky eater too. We've taken to saving her dinner and letting her eat it later when she decides she really *is* hungry!
I say you won! She was tired and needed to go to bed. She knew that you weren't backing down because she was in bed. So...she gets sleep and you get sanity....
Food battles. I should be an expert because we have been dealing with them for years now (first with one kid, now with another, but I really have no idea what I'm doing. Most nights the darling three year old sits at the table for more than an hour before she manages to shovel in four or five bites of the main dish. She will happily eat fresh fruits or veggies, but give her a potato or a hunk of steak and she immediately forgets how to use her utensils. Aarrrrghhhh! She was the only one (including four friends) who didn't get a brownie this evening because she couldn't manage three more bites of scalloped potatoes and ham. I am curious to hear how tomorrow goes. And I am SOOO with you on the threes being tougher than the twos.
I am so with you on this. We are there...with a one year old...which in my opinion is even harder than the 2s and 3s because you can't reason with him as much. Some nights he will eat only a few crackers and other nights he will eat everything put in front of him. I am at a loss b/c we didn't go thru this with Emma. But I do know I will not be a short order cook or just serve up sweets for dinner. Way to win the battle!
I totally relate!!! I agree, 3 is much harder then 2!!! I question why I had children a lot lately...but it's my current 3-year-old who makes me do that!
Post a Comment