food — Blog — Eat or Starve

I can be dramatic and speak in extremes. With my very dry humor, I can sometimes (read often), be misunderstood or taken very literally when I in no way mean exactly what I say. It's the whole "Say what you mean, mean what you say," idea. I very rarely follow this, in fact I follow this so rarely, that even when I'm serious, people often think I'm joking. It is a blessing and a curse depending on the day and the situation.

It has been mentioned by a few concerned people that starving our children is neither healthy nor safe. I feel like I should be very honest and clear, our children do not starve. If they are truly completely opposed to eating what we put in front of them, they get crackers, peanut butter and milk after we finish eating. We do make them wait until we are done because L will wait until the very last second before she trying her dinner. If we gave her the option she would live off crackers and peanut better rather than consider trying something new. It doesn't even matter how many times we sing Daniel Tiger's "You gotta try new foods cause they might be gooood, goooooooooooood!" song.

At the end of the day, we want the absolute best for them. Part of having the best is being able to branch out, try new things, know that you can try something, hate it, and still be a better person for it in the end. I'm getting pretty deep about the life long impact of eating peas.

As an aside, one of these concerned individuals was my father, the girl's grandfather. I feel it is worth pointing that as a former picky eater myself, I don't recall having custom made dinners made for me when I was younger and refusing to eat my fish sticks. I'm chalking this up to the difference between parenting and grand-parenting. Either way, our girls are incredibly blessed to have a multitude of people looking out for their well being. So, Eat or Starve*.

* By starve we mean experience a mild uncomfortable feeling of hunger while you refuse to eat the food sitting in front of you and instead wait for graham crackers and peanut butter. **

** This version is not nearly as catchy. It is also very long and hard to remember.