the problem with food

I am sure that every parent wishes at one time or another that their child(ren) would just eat what is made. I can remember as a child being the only one still sitting at the table long after everyone was done, because I had not eaten my canned beets. (I hated those things) The dinner rule in my house growing up was this: You could not get down from the table until you have eaten everything on your plate. Yes, it was in my childhood that I became a lifetime member of the Clean Plate Club. I also remember thinking up ways that I could dispose of my food without having to actually eat what I didn't want. I am sure you all have done something similar to what I did. Getting a mouth full of food and then saying that you need to use the restroom only to spit out the food in the toilet and of course flush to dispose of any evidence. Or I would "use" paper napkins to hold my chewed food in.

Now that I am a parent I can watch for these and other tactics.( I have seen Jessica spread out the content on her plate to make it look like she has eaten most of what she originally had. I laugh inside at the attempt and then think "c'mon Jess, you can come up with something better than that. Try again")

But more often than not, mealtime can be quite demanding on my patience. I feel like a broken record repeating the same phrases over and over. This redundancy makes me want to run full speed at a brick wall.... (did you get the visual?)

So after struggling with the meal/kid scenario for several years, I think that I have come up with a couple of solutions that I thought I would share with ya'll.

#1: If they don't eat what I have made for dinner, that is fine, they don't have to eat it......they just get to go to bed hungry.......oh and they get to eat their dinner for breakfast!!! After Cora went without dinner, breakfast, and lunch, she got hungry enough to eat the night before's dinner for a snack. I know it sounds cruel and pretty extreme but it works. All I have to do is mention having their dinner for breakfast and they comply.

#2This approach I thought of recently and it works well too. We have a 3-4 "corse" meal.

I will serve only the vegetables(their least favorite for the menu) as the "1st corse" and they have to eat a reasonable amount before they get the "2nd corse" which is their next least favorite. I do this until they obtain the coveted roll or meat or whatever it is as the last corse. The theory behind this one is that they will get the most nutritious food first and therefor by the time they get to the least nutritious they are full or nearly there. I am sure that there are many flaws and long term effects that my children will one day blame all their problems on, but for now this is what works for me and thats what I am going to do for as long as I need to.

If you have any input or constructive criticism, please feel free to share them with me.

Happy eating!!

-Carol