No No No, I don’t care what you say!

You just can’t force kids to eat what is in front of them. 

I get so irritated!  Lately we have been having problems with my girls and their eating habits.  I make dinner, just as I do every night.  There are some staple recipes that I know all five of us like, and then there are those that only my husband and I will eat and the kids won’t.   First, I must say that no, I am not an extremely healthy eater.  I only like a handful of vegetables and fruits, and I don’t like anything that contains fish {except for the occasional tuna sandwich from Subway}, and myself as a child, I was picky too.  My husband is on the “clean your plate” team, but he’s always the skinny one and the one that takes at least an hour to eat his food, and mama, “ain’t got time for that”.  So, naturally when it comes to my kids, my thinking is if they don’t eat what I make, they are welcome to grab some cereal, oatmeal, fruit, carrots, or something of the like.  We all sit down for dinner together, no matter what is on the plate.  They might get some popcorn later for a snack, but that’s about it.   My husband hates that I let them have “what ever they want”, which clearly isn’t the case as I’m not going to let them pull out a bag of chips, or eat a sleeve of chocolate chip cookies either.  They are almost 16, 13 & 10, so they are pretty self-sufficient and I don’t and won’t make any second dinners just so they can “clean their plate”.   If they don’t want to eat what I make, then they are on their own {with limits}.

I hear of so many parents that make their children sit there and eat the food they don’t like or will send them to bed with nothing and I can’t do that, I just can’t.  By me forcing them to eat something they don’t want or like, isn’t that being very contradictory when it comes to teaching a child determine when they are hungry and when they aren’t, as well as what they like and what they don’t?  How is forcing them to eat it making it right?  I know I wouldn’t want anyone forcing me to eat something I don’t like, or can’t get past the texture.  My oldest child has texture issues and can’t swallow mushy meat like my crock pot beef stew or any type of roast.  She doesn’t like food touching, so casseroles are tricky.  She’s been this way for as long as I can remember.  When she was a toddler, she was picky, but her pickiness as a young adult has increased.  My son, he’s the best eater of them all.  He will usually try anything and everything and will usually eat what ever I cook, unless it’s really gross and then no one eats!  My youngest who will soon be 10 is falling in the lines of her sisters footsteps, only she isn’t complaining of texture issues, it’s just that she doesn’t like certain foods anymore.  She once loved chicken, now she hates it and won’t eat it at all, but knowing this, how can I force her to eat it?  I don’t care what you say, I just can’t!  No No No, I can’t.

What do you do when your child won’t eat what you cook?