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| Chicken AGAIN?? |
You work your ass off every day. You have responsibilities at work that you balance with your duties as a single parent. You shuttle your kids to practices and rehearsals, help with homework, keep things clean, pay the bills and generally just hold it down. If you plan your day right, and if you rush straight home from work, you barely have enough time to cook a good dinner for everyone. It's not easy, but it can be done.
And you're doing it.
Realizing that you still have your work clothes on, you kick your shoes off in a corner as you give it all one last taste test. You stack the junk mail and old homework papers on the corner of the table and call the kids to dinner. The sit down, and what do they say?
This is gross.
Kid #1 ; "Dad, I feel like we just had this, and you know I don't like carrots. Plus I don't even like leftovers because they tell us in school that food should be fresh. I'm just going to eat popcorn or something, that's what I'm gonna do."
Kid#2; (Quietly stirs her food around until it looks so bad even I wouldn't eat it)
"I have a stomach ache. I don't think I can eat"
Me ; " I think I do too now. Why did you destroy your food"
Kid#2; "My stomach ache started before dinner. The smell of the food made it worse"
This has happened to all of us. Hell, it might even happen to you tonight.
This is astounding to me. I understand that kids have likes and dislikes. That's not a problem. We all take our kids into consideration when we cook dinner, but they still seem to complain.
I have a theory
I think this phenomena might be exclusive to the United States. I mean, do kids in China complain that all they get is Chinese food? Do kids in Mexico get tired of Mexican food? (See also 10 reasons why your kids are picky eaters) I'm going to have to research this. All I know that as we had rice every night when I was growing up. Granted, Puerto Rican rice is better than just about any rice in the world, (PR Rice and Beans Recipe) but we still had it every night. When my parents went to dinner my dad would take some to the restaurant in a container so the waitress could have it added to his order.I wish I could have some right now. I love that shit. I'm confused about these kids.
Here's how I solved the problem
Family meeting
I explained to my daughters that since they had such a problem with their dinner every night, I was going to let them see how difficult it was. They could cook dinner for the family. I instructed them to plan a meal that I thought everyone would like, and that was healthy. They were given a pen and paper for a grocery list. They were excited.
Problem solved? Hardly!
This was no solution. I'm sure my kids thought they got away with a poorly designed punishment. First of all, those kids don't drive and are currently unemployed. Besides, they are still working on their kitchen cleaning skills. They were going to have a great time and I was going to have more work. Little did they know , this was merely the first step in a more elaborate undertaking.
The big day had arrived. The kids rushed in from school and immediately got to work. They made sure to tell me that they would need to start right away if they hoped to be done in time (as if they invented this).
Dinner was served!
My daughter measured my portion out carefully, and handed me my plate. I politely thanked her, and prepared to eat.
I looked at it for a few seconds, then poked it a bit with my fork.
I guess she noticed.
"How come you aren't eating it dad?"
I shrugged my shoulders
"I'm not sure of this smell. Thank you kids, but I don't think I like this. I'm going to go watch TV. Can you just make me a sandwich or something? We never have anything good to eat."
My daughter replied calmly, maturely and firmly;
"Dad, we rushed right home from school to make this for you. We worked very hard on this dinner and my sister and I don't think it's right that you"............................
It got real quiet. Time got real slow while these kids were figuring out what just happened.
She smiled
"Dad, you don't need to say anything. we get it"
A few years ago I realized that raising my voice was just counterproductive in my house. Whenever I yelled, there was somebody that wanted to yell back. I try not to do it. I seemed to have forgotten that, for the most part, I'm smarter than my kids. I don't feel that way after I yell, so this could only mean I'm letting my kids win. So, instead of raising my voice, I just try to trick my kids into figuring things out on there own. After all, isn't that what parenting is supposed to be about?
Check out The day my kids staged a mutiny!
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