With all the posts about picky eaters and such, I thought I would ask: Is the battle over eating one that you choose to have or not? Personally, if my kids don't like what we are having, they get something else. It is something easy like a sandwich, cereal or such. Personally, whether they eat what I cook or not is not that big of an issue to me, I save the battles for other things.

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~Happiness is a large family~

My kids have to eat two bites and then I'll make them something else (pb&j usually). Sometimes they like it, sometimes they don't, I don't usually fight too much over this one.

Well you already know from my responses in those threads that food is not a battle I fight. I worried about it a lot when my ds was smaller, but the pediatrician kept telling me to not worry, so I finally took his advice. Now that doesn't mean I let him eat anything he wants, or a diet full of junk. But I don't make him eat any specific food. If he doesn't want the entree we're having, he can make himself a PB sandwich, and if he doesn't like the veggies, he's told to find some veggie or fruit to eat (for him usually raw baby carrots or an apple). So he eats a fairly well balanced, albeit repetitive, diet. I pick my battle over things like morals, values, good grades, manners, respect for family, etc. Food is not even NEAR the top of my list.

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I insist that they at least try what I have made. It's rude in my opinion not to. Tonight there was a bit of a war. I placed dinner in front of my little one, he would not touch it. It had lots of things in it that he liked, he was just being a brat. I told him to at least try some of the veggies that he liked or he was not having a snack tonight. He wouldn't try them and he did not have a snack. He will eat a good breakfast tomorrow. If he would have tried it and hated it, I would have offered him something else. I will never cave to bad manners.

No, we don't battle over food here. It's dangerous territory that can lead to some extremely unhealthy behaviors later in life, IMO. We do have a 3 bite rule before they can be excused from the table. If they're gagging, I obviously don't enforce that rule. With that said, I've been blessed with pretty good eaters who don't fake those gags, so while they may not particularly care for something, they'll tolerate it because they're hungry little beasts. LOL I also choose not to cook meals where there's nothing to choose from that they won't eat, so I'm not faced with a short-order cook situation. I am definately aware that the more elaborate the meal is, the less enthused my kids are. Not sure why...it is what it is. As long as I have a basic meat and two sides (veggies or fruit), or some pasta and a salad, I'm happy that there's enough to fill bellies and they're not going to starve themselves.

When I was in pre-school, old Ms. Hammer forced me to eat pinto beans. Note that nearly 4 decades later I still refer to her as old Ms. Hammer, and I haven't seen her since preschool! To this day I can't eat any beans with any kind of mush in them. Green beans are fine. My father was bad about making me eat foods...today I can't eat any meat if there's any sign of fat on it, so steaks are a rare commodity in my home as I end up wasting half of it by cutting it up. He also made me drink milk, which tasted nothing less than a crushed piece of chalk. I could drink the chocolate milk from school just fine. Today I can at least have white milk in my cereal, but only if I add an ice cube to it and use the fat-free milk, and chocolate milk makes me want to hurl. Most of my issues are psychological.

There were so many many things I couldn't stand as a kid that I came around to, mostly in my teens, and now enjoy very much. Our town didn't have a McD's either, and I didn't have my first corndog till I was an adult (man those things are nasty ) so it wasn't a matter of being so spoiled on junk that I couldn't eat good food. We were a southern family where foods were pulled right from our garden, albeit cooked with bacon grease for extra flavor! If you have simple tastes, then you have simple tastes....it is what it is.

What will not happen, and will bring out the fury of my DH, is if we have ungrateful comments that come out of their little mouths at mealtime. They may not like something, but they can at the very least show grace. With that said, I do want to know why they don't like something, maybe they'd like it better if cooked in a different way.

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Sheri~ Wife to Steve, Mom to Adam (14), Brandon (12), and Tommy (7)

This is us too...

Personally I think food battles are never won by us the parents. I like a nice happy medium. NO they don't have to eat what I serve, but then they are not going to get catered to either. I guess if I know ds hates something I like I wait and have it in a restaurant?

On occasion if the dish is really spicy or if I know ds really hates it (which is rare because I basically cook what I think dh and ds like) I let ds make a pbj. But that hasn't happened in months.

I'm a mom, not a short order cook, and I don't run a diner. You don't like it, you don't have to eat it, just wait until the next meal, maybe you'll like that better. If not, you won't starve yourself. Sorry I'm being crass. But that's basically how I run the show here, everyone knows it, and no one is unduly hungry in this house.

[quote=SheriH]

When I was in pre-school, old Ms. Hammer forced me to eat pinto beans. Note that nearly 4 decades later I still refer to her as old Ms. Hammer, and I haven't seen her since preschool!

My dad made me eat lima beans 40 years ago, he's long dead and gone and I still resent those lima bean days. I think, so you really think you won the battle dad now did you, now I hate them and I think of *you* poorly, so did you win really? I don't think so. (Ok, so I have a lot of unresolved issues!)

The funny thing is my ds will eat lima beans but I will not serve them!

LOL Stormy- you nailed it!

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Sheri~ Wife to Steve, Mom to Adam (14), Brandon (12), and Tommy (7)

I totally agree with you and do the same thing.

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Mary