adverseria

In our house, we have set days for dinners. I have REALLY picky kids, and it’s because I’ve let them get by being picky. Tuesday is a free day, which means they can request whatever they wish for dinner within reason. It’s usually a day for them to choose what they like best. In my son’s case, that’s usually a corndog and for daughter it’s usually chicken nuggets. What neither knows is that both items are vegetarian, so it doesn’t really bother me. Thursdays have become the defacto tunafish salad meal, because it is quick and easy to prepare. On Thursdays, we have tumbling and preparing for our tests on Fridays, so fast and easy works. Plus, fish is brain food and both kids like it. Friday is pizza night. Homemade for parents and a particular frozen brand for the kids. Now when I say particular brand, it’s got to be Home Run Inn frozen pizza and preferably cheese only, but they will eat pepperoni. They will also eat dad’s famous homemade cheese pizza, but it’s easier for me to make the parental pizza while the children’s pizza is cooking.

So how did they become this picky? With my son, we’re not really sure. This is a kid who likes to suck on lemons, and yes, I know it’s bad for his enamel, but it’s not as if I’m giving him a lemon every day. When he was a baby to toddler age, he ate just about everything we put on his plate. He ate broccoli, spinach with vinegar on it, burritos, whatever we could come up with, he ate. Now, it’s peanut butter, various unhealthy meats, corndogs, chicken nuggets and pizza. Vegetables? Pretty much carrots are the only thing eaten. Fruits? Apples, and only Granny Smith apples at that. I blame Chef Boyardee for turning the once proud eating machine into a picky palate. One day several years ago, I purchased a can of SpaghettiOs thinking it would be a treat for the lad and that I wouldn’t have to cook dinner that night. Well he tried them and hated them. So, being mean parent that I was, I made him eat them. Whereupon he promptly vomited, which elicited a somewhat perturbed response from his father. Up until then I think he thought he could trust his parents food choices, and now he’s always kind of skeptical of what we put out, even he we are emoting over how good the food tastes. His sister has learned from him, because she was just starting out with food when he entered into his picky phase and since sister worships brother, the handwriting was on the wall.

I have tried many things to win this battle but always lose. Serve it again the next day? Doesn’t matter, they still won’t eat it. Have them try it multiple times just means wasting food over and over. Tell them that’s all they get until breakfast? They laugh and wait until breakfast. Mix in things without their knowing? Yeah right, these are kids who can differentiate between brands of peanut butter. I often times think they could become food testers, but since they only eat a limited number of things, probably wouldn’t work out too well. I laugh at the recipes on the websites that guarantee finicky eaters will love them. I’ve tried a couple and while I enjoy them, my children do not.

So, we slip in fiber disguised as a muffin, give them soy-based products as much as possible, and make sure they take a multi-vitamin every day. It’s easier if you just give up. The one thing we can all agree on every time? Dessert of course.

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