Ugh...I hate dinner time. Don't get me wrong--I feel strongly that it's important to have dinner as a family. In our house, a pleasant dinner time does not come easily.
There is a perfectly lovely lasagna baking in the oven right now. Yes, I did make it. No, I'm not trying to toot my own horn. :) So, it's still 45 minutes from the dreaded time of sitting down and having food in front of us. For the next 45 minutes, I will be asked countless times some assortment of the following questions:
"Can I just have a hot dog for dinner?" Never mind that a hot dog was absolutely unacceptable at lunch time.
"Do I like lasagna?" Well, let's see, you like spaghetti, and lasagna is basically just spaghetti with sauce. And mozzarella cheese. Which is wonderful when it's on pizza. Oh, and speaking of pizza, there's that red sauce again. Although spaghetti and pizza are two favorites, I'm betting I can't convince the child asking the question that yes, they probably will like lasagna.
"I'm not hungry. Do I have to eat dinner?" Well, honey, that's fine if you're not hungry. Do you anticipate being hungry for a snack after dinner? Oh, you do? Then maybe you should eat dinner first. Oh, you're not hungry again?
Once dinner is actually served, I imagine that family conversation about the events of the day will be replaced with some combination of the following statements:
"I really don't like it. No, I didn't try it, but it doesn't smell good."
"It tastes different." Different than what? I can't tell you; there's never an answer for that.
"If you're not going to eat it, fine. Let's just stop whining about the food through the whole meal!"
"Can I just eat 3 bites? Ok, how about 4?"
"Can I get up now? I"m full?" This often comes after the second bite.
"No snack later?!? Fine, I'll eat more bites."
And I'm sure there will be more.
How do you handle dinner challenges in your house? Even if your dinner is absolutely peaceful and your children are always appreciative of the food, you can make something up, just to make me feel better!
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Ha ha ha! That sounds like my house every day at lunch and dinner! For some reason I don't hear much complaining at breakfast. I just continue to be persistent and Aidan usually eats eventually...unless it's meat. He won't eat it. So, my rule is you have to eat ALL of your vegetables...every single bite if you're going to skip the meat. He's a good vegetable eater. If he doesn't eat an acceptable amount at mealtime we keep it and give it as a snack when he comes asking for one..Good work, Jessica!
ReplyDeleteLOL! I can so~o relate to this post!!! Gracie eats everything pretty much, but Lillie is a battle. What has helped me was one time I wrapped her plate in plastic wrap and served it to her for every meal/snack for 24 hours. Since then all I have to do is say I am saving it for later and she will then eat the acceptable amounts. Hope you have more enjoyable dinner times! :)
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