As you know if you read my facebook updates, we had a bit of a dinner fiasco last night.
It being Stake Conference Sunday, I was excited to have more time to cook a delicious dinner (and a delicious brunch in the morning too). I had recently seen Paula Deen make Acorn Squash and I wanted to give it a try. It was covered with a butter/sugar/syrup combination; who wouldn't love that? I decided on a Stovetop Stuffing chicken roulade as our main course (a dish that I just made up as I went along) and I made some yummy rice flavored with chicken stock and spices to round out the meal.
Our plated food was gorgeous. I considered dinner to be a culinary success.
Had dinner just been for Aaron and I, it would've been lovely, calm, and uneventful. But, I happen to have four children who have told me on various occasions that they dislike anything from the squash family. They definitely made that known last night.
I'll spare you the details but after listening to a totally unacceptable amount of groaning and complaining I had had enough; I retired to my room and thankfully Aaron was willing to take over. Eventually, all the kids did finish their dinner (we insist on it around here) but it took some of them a full hour. AN HOUR to eat about 1/4 chicken breast, a small portion of rice, and 1/4 of a buttered/sugared acorn squash.
I was so annoyed by the whole thing I was ready to give up cooking altogether. But then I realized that if I really did quit cooking dinner and left the kids to their own devices, they'd have nothing but white bread toast and cold cereal for dinner. So this morning I came up with an idea.
My reasoning: I am to blame for the kids' ungrateful reaction to last night's dinner, because I clearly don't expose them to enough "different" food for them to know how to properly behave when they see it. Makes perfect sense, right? When they got home from school today I explained to them that based on last night's performance, it is obvious that they need more practice dealing with unsavory dinners. Therefore, I will make them food they don't love until they learn how to eat and behave properly. Once they can show me some decent manners, I will make them something I know they like.
During our after school chat I made them practice appropriate responses to finding out what's for dinner:
Me: Guess what guys, for dinner we're having codfish with liver.
Kids: Mmm! Sounds very interesting, Mom!
Me: For dinner tonight, I'll be serving rotten meatloaf with mustard sauce.
Kids: Wow, I've never had THAT before!
Me: What's for dinner, you ask? Why, I've prepared a delightful dish of sauerkraut and brussels sprouts.
Kids: Sounds delicious!!
Tonight's actual dinner: zucchini, and freshly-baked whole wheat bread. I opted for minimalism so that the zucchini would be front and center. (They don't like zucchini as it is part of the squash family, of course.)
The children having been well-prepped, dinner tonight was absolutely delightful. It was clear (by a few silent grimaces as they forced it down) that a couple of them did NOT care for the zucchini but they ate it anyway without a word of complaint. I heard a lot of "thanks for dinner, Mom!" and "this zucchini is actually pretty good!" and they were all finished within a reasonable amount of time.
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I am looking forward to making their favorite soup tomorrow night. It's amazing how much more I want to do that for them after they behaved so nicely tonight. So there's a little dinner-time tip for you; I hope this new strategy keeps working in the future around here.
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Monday, November 15, 2010
New Dinner Strategy
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7 comments:
You put it so nicely - "retired and left them with Aaron" or whatever you said. Ha - I have had those moments and it involved me walking out saying, no, hollering, "I am not coming back until dinner is eaten AND cleaned up by someone other than me!" Our experimenting with meatless nights has really opened up the chances to eat new stuff and mine in general really do a good job. They do occasionally thrash but for the most part I have been lucky to have good eaters. Keep trying new stuff - it is good for them.
One of my theories on why they eat well is I never did baby food from a jar. I made my own, which is kind of a pain, and quickly got them adapted to whatever we were eating, in mashed up form, and again quickly transitioned to real food. I never make special dinners for picky eaters. I have a friend who makes her daughter toast and yogurt (her fav!) every time she won't eat what was prepared. And she wonders why her daughter won't eat anything she makes for dinner....
I love how you taught your kids the polite way to talk about and eat dinners they don't like. We have a picky eater in our house and he is so stubborn. He would go to bed hungry and then wake up at 5 AM starving. I couldn't handle it so I gave up. I do make him eat at least one bite of what we are eating and if I know he likes it I make him eat it and he can't have anything else. I hope I can implement what you did with my kids. Thanks for sharing the great tip!
i loved this. their practiced responses were so great. :)
Whenever my kids complain, I make them repeat after me, "Thank you mom for cooking us dinner so we don't starve to death!" About 2 years ago I started making the kids try at least a bite of everything I make. It's amazing how many new things they've learned to like! :)
Nice job Sara- definitely something I will keep in mind for years to come. I have a question- did your kids have foods they liked when they were like 2 or 3 years old, and now don't like, especially fruits & vegetables?
Great piece of mothering. You've grown another notch in our books (if that's even possible). You can fix acorn squash for me ANYTIME. I love it. Ruth - not so much.
"Sounds interesting Mom." hahaha
I remember making a big fuss about not wanting to eat something that looked so obviously disgusting that by the time I finally did try it I couldn't admit I was wrong and that it actually tasted great. So in our family we have a rule that you have to try a bite of everything on the table, but if you don't like it, you don't have to eat any more. They have to have a bite of everything served even if they didn't like it the time it was served. So the kids put at least a little of everything on their plates without fuss, and it's not scary to try new things because they know they don't have to eat more if they don't like it. It has worked great for us. Of course, my 2 year old is posing a special problem and won't eat ANYTHING but bread at most meals, but the older kids are great little eaters. They're not allowed to have dessert if they didn't clean their plates, so on Monday nights I make sure I serve something everyone likes so they all get the FHE treat.
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