Alternatives

[lillibet]

I'm curious what other parents think of this post. Our solution has been that Alice doesn't have to eat what she doesn't like at dinner and then she has a before-bed snack of yogurt mixed with oatmeal and fruit, so she won't go to bed hungry, which drastically affects the ease of bedtime. And, mostly Alice will find something on her dinner plate to eat if she's hungry and if it's not a hungry day, very little is acceptable. And she does eat so many things that it hasn't been a big deal. But forewarned is half the octopus, so I think about strategies.

I understand the theory behind what these folks are trying, but in the family I know who did this, the alternative was for the kids to nuke themselves a hot dog and the outcome was two teenagers who really didn't eat anything but hotdogs.

Comments

[joyeous.livejournal.com]

Sounds like my niece and nephew, who eat nothing but oatmeal for dinner. My mom couldn't understand why they wouldn't even try her homemade stew, homemade meatloaf, etc. and was very hurt about it (I'm not talking about toddlers, I'm talking about pre-teens here...but it started with them not liking their food at age two and my brother immediately giving in).

[http://users.livejournal.com/urban_faerie_/]

Oh wow, my mom would have considered it the height or rude had I refused to sample a meal my grandmother made by the time I was a pre-teen! I think if I was still doing that at that age I would have been banished from the table!

I sampled a lot of old-fashioned (or just plain bad, my mom did NOT inherit her cooking skills from my nana!) food to save my grandmother's feelings. That was pretty much the law. Turning my nose up at my mom's food was one thing. Turning my nose up at nana's food... disrespect!