If I were you.......

Lately it has been a real struggle to get Jack to eat his dinner.  Of course if its something he really likes, he chows right down.   I would consider myself an adventurous cook, I like to try new recipes and I like to try new ingredients.  We, meaning Da and myself, are also not very lenient with the kids about mealtime. . We do not cater to them, and we do not make them something special, and we do make them eat a good portion of their meal, or there will be nothing else later.  Especially treats.  We have tried many tactics lately with him.   For instance, we will be planning on having dessert one night. We tell the children, if you eat your dinner, you can have dessert. If not, no dessert for you. Seems very reasonable to me.   When we remind this to Jack as he sits staring at his food refusing to even try a bite, he always responds with, " I not care".  Well of course he really does care when the dessert is pulled out and he is not eating any. He bawls and cries and begs. Usually we pull out his dinner, and he will eat it, and than he gets his dessert.

Well tonight was one of those nights. We were planning on having strawberry shortcake. I had made a zucchini bake with bacon and cheese. Da and I really liked it.  We knew of course that the kids would not be huge fans.  We take these kinds of things into consideration.  Yet, we expect them to be polite, and eat as much as possible.  The girls made a good effort, eating out all the things they liked and than each eating a set amount of zucchini. When they finished, they were still hungry, and we allowed them to make a peanut butter and jelly.  We don't make them fill up on something they don't like, but as long as they make a good effort, they can have "seconds" of something else.  Usually cereal or PBJ. 

Tonight when we pulled out the strawberry shortcake, the girls had the cake, strawberries and whip cream.  We comprised with Jack and said he could have just strawberries since he did not eat his dinner.   He ate quite a few, of course he was hungry I am sure.  It was time for bed, and he was trying to negotiate another snack from me.  I was holding my ground with him, and he was still begging. Finally,  I just said, you need to get into bed, if you would of ate your dinner, you would not be hungry right now.   I could tell a melt down might be coming, so I threatened in advance if that were to happen, he would be getting sassy spray(a spritz of vinegar in the mouth, a form of punishment around here). I than concluded with " If I were you, I would get in to bed!"   His response was " Well if I were YOU,  I would let ME have a snack!"  And than he marched off to bed!  And its a good thing too, because it was a real struggle to keep a straight face, and I might of just let him have his way. 

That kid cracks me up.............