Friday, March 25, 2005

Going to bed hungry

I have 2 girls - ages 3 and 4. I can pretty much count on them going to bed without eating much or any dinner at least 3 times a week. They often don't like what I serve, and I refuse to make them a special meal that I know they would like. I feel kind of guilty about this sometimes, but their pediatrician seemed to think this was quite OK.

I don't try to make them eat anything unreasonable, like especially spicy foods. If they want more of the roll/rice/other carb with dinner, they have to eat some of the other stuff on their plate first. I've heard the theory that you shouldn't place a higher value on one type food than another, but I don't know how else to get them to eat their veggies.

So, most nights when we all sit down to dinner, I get to hear a lot of "I don't like squash" or "I don't want to eat my chilli". So, my husband and I tell them "well, don't eat it if you don't like it, but this is dinner". When my husband has to be out of town, I miss having at least one other person who thinks my dinners are good. When he is home, at least 2 out of 4 of us like the meal.
When he's gone, I feel like I don't want to spend a bunch of effort on a meal that only I will eat.

Both my girls are at a healthy weight/height. I have some friends whose children are very short or very underweight. They make special meals at night for them, and I can understand their concern in putting their kids to bed hungry. If I was in that situation, I might do that too. But since I'm not, I won't make them macaroni and cheese or hot dogs for dinner. They'll just have to eat my turkey burger, brocolli, and black bean salad. Of course, no one will actually eat my black bean salad and I'll have to hear lots of whining about it. I guess that's the way it goes.

1 Comments:

Blogger PJ said...

I'm a tired mama too... of two boys, close in age (18 months) like your girls are -- you don't know how lucky you are. My boys are 11 and *just turned* 13 (ouch)... I'm not as tired as I used to be, but we have ALWAYS had the food issues. Still do. Unfortunately, I'm a mom that has to ensure that my kiddos get enough nutrients (they've both always been below the 5th percentile in height and weight).

You're a lucky gal! hang in there.
pj

3:34 PM  

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