food wars :tales from the south

Son is a picky eater. he has his favorites few, and will try to refuse anything else. At home, what is made for dinner, is dinner. If it isn't eaten, or at least tasted, the punishment for not eating it being no dessert.
Son likes dessert.
So he eats most of his meals, though he does complain a bit..

While we were at his grandparents', of course, this was changed on me.

Nana knows he's particular, and asked me before we got there. " I know there are some things they can't have, and Son is picky, so what DO they eat? I'm going to go to the store before you arrive so we don't have to later."
yeah. . . I fell for it, hook , line, and sinker.
She can't have too much citrus, he will eat spagetti and pizza every day if we let him.
her reply ," oh, I'm not eating pizza every day for two weeks. We'll surely have something else he likes."
And again, I fell for it.

the first night , She had chicken. . .
Son? Eats

the second day , we went shopping. and the kids got hungry as we finished. Pappy spotted a pizza place. we ordered one slice each,which turned out to be about 1/4 of a pizza each. these 'slices' were huge. We ended up cutting the kids' slices into 3's. they each ate two- which meant they had a slice to take back to the house.

Somehow, at dinner that evening, those extra slices made it to the table.
son? eats.

My sister made spagetti the following night.
Son... eats.

Miraculously, she had made enough spagetti to put a bowl on the table for the next 2 nights as well.
guess what my Son ate?

We took the kids to a chinese buffet, where, out of 5 full buffet tables, my children both took the pizza. Son also tried the chicken, which he vetoed after a single nibble.

We take them to a greek place, he wants chicken nuggets. (pasta wasn't on the kids menu, but chicken is a universal fallback for kid-friendly)

It seemed to be a conspiracy.

Every night we'd sit for dinner, and there was always some form of spagetti or pizza on the table. coincidentally, also placed in front of Son.

Every night, I put some of the spagetti, or pizza onto his plate, ALONG with whatever else was served. Not heaping amounts either. a teaspoon of peas, a few bites of pork chops... and told him the same rules apply. eat the dinner or no dessert. If he cleared all the spagetti, and at least tried the rest, it was approved. if he didn't touch the rest, it was no snack.

My Mother tried to get him out of this.

"No wonder he doesn't eat it all, you give him so much"

oh hardly Mother. Knowing she is partly picking n me, and partly appealing for her grandson's right to eat whatever he wants at Nana's, the following night i give him just a bit less of the rest of the meal. .. with his spagetti.

She sees its not working, and attempts another method.

" wait until you see what we have for dessert!"

oh no..

She's got the big guns now. Of course, Son ate with no more problem than he had before.
Why would he possibly have a problem anyway? he's getting his favorites every night. He has yet to have complained.

But, being Nana....
You know those snacks were big time.

When we get home, this child needs to be retrained. we do pizza or spagetti once a week.
The boy is asking for leftovers instead.

He isn't getting them,but I found it amusing how easily he slid right into the habit of getting what he wants for dinner.

and of course, the nightly complaints have restarted.

how have i solved this issue?

Also every night, there was spinach on the table. I, myself, refuse to eat the stuff, so can't possibly force it into my kids.
The joke was trying to get one of us to eat spinach.
the joke failed miserably. none of us even got close to doing it.
Peer pressure will get you nowhere in the nuthouse.

my solution to Son's complaints about home dinners not being up to Nana's dinners, was to buy a can of spinach.
I place it on the table, and tell him if he doesn't want to eat dinner, he has to have something nutritious, and i can easily open that can.

HAha!

son... Eats.