I know this is not the post some of you were waiting for... but I've been eagerly awaiting this day over at Shannon's blog. If you're looking for those cute kiddos, just skip to the end of this post, okay!
I have a number of things in my head that I need advice about right now, but I'm going to stick with the biggest issue at hand for now.
Dinnertime & children.
This time of the day has reached an all-time low for us over here. My children have become the ultimate complainers and pickiest eaters in the universe (so it seems to me). I take it soooooo personally. Probably b/c I'm the mom and I'm Italian and well, food is my life and I must feed my little chickadees and when they won't eat something delicious that I've prepared, it sends me overboard. Oh and of course I always prepare something delicious.
Take last night for example. I made something everyone likes- pasta. I used an old stand-by recipe that we've loved time and time again- Rachael Ray's You Won't Be Single For Long Pasta with Vodka Sauce. We love it. It was delish. Yum-O, as RR would say.
Now, I also made another dish to go along with this winner of a meal- eggplant parmesan, pretty much just eggplant that I bread and bake and you can add sauce if you want or eat it plain. This too was super good.
Well wouldn't you believe those little people gobbled up the eggplant and would not TOUCH the pasta!
Say what???
Now, I was upstairs for the beginning of all this commotion (putting babies to bed) and Vinny was manning the dinnertime front. Max was sitting there with a BOWL full of pasta and his little frownie face that meant, I'm not touching this. Gabriel was picking out the penne pieces that didn't have any traces of sauce attached and gobbling up the eggplant. Vinny was in his glory as he was as hungry as a hostage (at least I have one happy client in the house, right?)
So, what do we do when the little people protest about meals? We have our dinnertime rule- Try everything once. Well, that is not working anymore. I'm convinced that if they've already decided that they don't like it, they're not going to eat it no matter how good it is or not.
For Max, he gets three warnings/threats and then if he doesn't try his food he's sent to his room. He goes without complaint. That's part of the frustration for me- he'll eagerly go to his room and won't get anything else to eat for the night and he's okay with that! grrrrrr
Gabriel, on the other hand, will just sit there and make the entire meal unbearable b/c he doesn't want to try it or eat it or finish it. Sometimes he's good about eating something he's not wild about, but most of the time he's not.
We've also tried the "if you won't eat it tonight you'll eat it for breakfast" idea and I'm so not keen on that. I don't want to bring yesterday's woes into tomorrow. I'd much rather have a fresh start for the battle ahead!
So there's my predicament. I need to make dinnertime more enjoyable. I've scoured my recipes to find the most family friendly I can make and it still bites me in the butt most nights. Where have I gone wrong? What am I not thinking about here? Why don't these people love food as much as I do?
Now for those of you who are just stopping by to see these guys.... here you go!
And the other two at the zoo on Friday!
15 comments:
Ok I have no help for you since my kids tend towards the picky side as well. I just had to post and say hi. I was thinking of posting on the WFW b/c there is so much I need advice on. As I scrolled to the bottom of the list I saw yours! Glad to see a post from you again. As for us - Ella is out better eater and she does best when she hasn't snacked muchin the afternoon. Same with Catherine. Hope you get some helpful tips.
I have no advice either, but just wanted to pop by and thank you for visiting my blog and invite you to come back in the future. I love making new blog buddies! :)
Thanks for your advice about baking soda, etc. How much do you use? And same with the water & vinegar, how much of each in a bottle?
Oh, you totally need to read KimC's post over at Life In A Shoe (she's got 8 kids). She just posted about this very recently. The post is entitled: 10 ways to avoid raising a picky eater. It's a must-read! I do most of the things on her list but I have to say that I'm terrible about #4: Don't avoid serving the foods you dislike. Other than that we're doing pretty good with our four kids (ages 21 months to 11 years). They'll eat pretty much anything.
One day Max and Gabriel will be off at college, eating Ramen noodles and just BEGGING you to come bring them that pasta. Dude, you're doing everything right, I am sure. Including the very wise "don't bring yesterday's woes into tomorrow." Wow, it takes a strong woman to obey that rule. I plan to share that message with Kevin tonight! It's a good one!
Anyway, I think this is just one of those things. Maybe it's a brother thing. A who-can-make-Mom-the-most-crazy thing. And if it is a brother thing, is it wrong to introduce competition? Or is that bribery? It's a good thing I'm not a mother, huh. Yesterday's woes would CERTAINLY be part of tomorrow in my household!
I wish you a lot of success as you try to feed these people. Don't back down! And don't EVER question your mad cooking skills! Everything you touch turns into delicious!
Thanks for visiting The Vileation Nation, too...miss you!
If they don't want it, you can send it to me, because I'll eat it. I think they'll come around. What kid gives up pasta forever?
And maybe I'm out of practice or something, but I think D and Z are looking more and more alike. I can't tell them apart using the "which one looks like Dozzi/ which one looks like Vinny" method anymore. If I had to guess though, left to right, it's Z then D in the top pic, and D then Z in the second pic.
I raised three kids that would eat anything I put in front of them (for the most part). Now we've got Shane who absolutely refuses to eat anything but bread. We too have tried everything - coersion, bribery, reasoning - Jeremy tried the whole "Don't you want to grow up to be big and strong" approach which lasted 15 min. I'm beginning to think its a boy thing. Of course all the experts now say, "Don't force them to eat", but that scares me. Keep us posted if you figure this one out!
Well, in our house if it is on the table, it goes on your plate. There aren't choices on that. It is how we work that. And then we can set how many bites the particular picky-pants has to have of the offending food item. But we have come to the point where our children (5 and almost 4) will not eat a meal. When that happens they have choices. The may eat what is on their plate, the number of bites prescribed. OR they will lose priveledges. Like dessert. Like (insert favorite item), or if it is dinner, they may go to bed, and forgo the before bed TV/book/fun bath.... The harder we push, the harder they push back and the worse it becomes, so... Our oldest is getting to the point where he really could go to the pantry and help himself, but I really, REALLY don't want that to be a viable option, so we do not offer that as an option for meals (snacks, maybe but not meals!)
Hope this rambling helps!
Oh yes, as mom said we deal with this on a daily basis. I swear my son likes nothing, but bread and things made with bread. What the heck? Although we seemed to making some headway recently with the "grow up big and strong with muscles like so and so". This leads to everyone flexing their muscles and at least lightens the mood. It is so hard to let them go to bed hungry, but for some reason they will do it way to easily. Good luck to you.
Dozzi, YOU ARE A FABULOUS COOK. And this blog reminds me that we were planning to do a 4square cookbook sequel and then you found out you were pregnant with twins (which by the way are super adorable in these pictures.) Since I travel a ton I love home cooked food. However, I was a very picky eater as a child and apparently went through phases. Do not use your children as a measure of your ability as a cook. How to get them to eat . . . I have no idea . . . I was pretty stubborn and wouldn't be force fed myself no matter what rules my parents came up with. I am still a picky eater so what to do - ahhh! Now the thing I need to figure out is that recipe for Never Single for Long Pasta dish . . . do you think it would work for me? Just kidding.
This probably isn't the advice you're looking for, but from a fellow mom of multiples: just let it go. Present the food; if they eat it, great. If they don't, great. No big deal.
In other words, if all they eat is eggplant for dinner, that's okay.
Keep mealtimes pleasant and keep introducing a variety of foods, along with old standbys. (If you know you're trying something new, serve it with something you know they love.)
My boys are six, six, and one. The boys are all adventurous eaters and we all enjoy connecting at the dinner table.
Good luck to you!!
I've made that pasta recipe before and it is marvelous! I too would be heartbroken if I served it and not one bite was taken.
I don't have kids and don't spend a ton of time around them so my advice might not be very useful. When I was little, we always ate what my parents were eating, but all blended together (maybe since it's in a different form it was more appealing?). Then when we got older, it was "eat what's served or make your own pb & j." I'm not a picky eater at all.
When I'm around toddlers now, I've done the "no tv or whatnot unless you eat 3 more bites" which works for about 2 bites, and "the racecar driver needs to finish the race, 3 more bites will do it!" which of course requires a prop, but it seems to work too. Maybe one of those ideas would help?
Like some have already said - I'd offer it - they must try ONE bite - and then they can move on or not. I'm a firm believer in not making any other meal just for them tho - this is dinner, have some or don't! We always try to offer stuff they do enjoy as well (sometimes they fill up on salad and breadsticks) but they know they won't get special treatment just because they don't like it! Good luck!
Ugh, I hate eggplant! I think the key is backing off. My son is like that, but if I leave him alone he will try it. The key is to keep him at the table until everyone is done eating. He doens't have to eat if he doesn't want to, but he does have to sit there. So he ends up eating out of sheer boredom. If I bug him about trying something, he will absolutely not do it. But if I just present the opportunity and leave him alone, he can't resist.
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