This has got to be the most frustrating statement to be uttered out of the mouths of either one of my babes. It starts like this. “Mom, I’m full,” as Avery and Jack look at me from their reserved spaces at the dinner table,barely a discernible drop of food touched on their plates.
Me: “You barely ate anything.”
Avery: “Yes, I did.”
Jack: “Yeah, me too.” He literally didn’t even move his fork.
Me: “No, neither one of you hardly touched your plates. How could you be full?” Gee, I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that there is meatloaf on their plate and not Cheetos.
Avery: “I ate a really big lunch.”
Jack: “Yeah, me too.”
Repeat above conversation about three more times.
And sometimes, folks, I relent. I do. I fight the fight, and then give up. Now, you may be asking, why don’tyoutake every opportunity to impart a valuable lesson about trying out unfamiliar foods and nourishing your body in a health-minded way? Yada yada yada. Because. I’m friggin’ tired.
Okay, here is the point in time where I experience the equivalent tonails scratching down an invisible chalkboard…are you ready? After dinner. Fast forward about, oh, 10 minutes.
Avery and Jack: “Can I have a snack? I’m hungry.”
Me: “Um, no. You just finished dinner. And if you remember right, you had the option to eat more of that. Your loss.”
Avery and Jack: <insert whining here> “But, we’re still hungry.”
WHAT?!?!?!?!?!
Can you feel my pain here, people? I’m sure you do. If you live in a land filled with miniature little dictators, then I know you feel it. What is unfathomable to me in this here situation is not that they are asking for a snack. I mean, come on, I’ve been guilty of sneaking a handful or two of Party Mix after dinner at times. Who hasn’t?
Oh, you don’t? Well…this is embarassing. Another blog post maybe.
Anyway.
What is unfathomable to me is the nerve they have asking me to eat a snack 10 minutes after battling with dinner. Either they have suffered some type of temporary amnesia or we are raising some cheeky little folks, my hubby and I.
Looks are often a whole heck of a lot more powerful than words around this house. And sometimes I just stand there and look at them after they ask forthat snack. I look at them like, “I can’t possibly have heard you correctly. Did you seriously just ask for a snack? Really? Really?”
And then they look right back at me like, “Um, no. We were mistaken. We didn’t mean ‘snack.’ We meant to say, um, ‘can we have a glass of water’? We’re a bit parched.”
I narrow my eyes, they shake their heads, and they scamper off.
Ugh.
You know, these little tykes can take a lot out of you. If you drop your guard, even for an instant, they take full advantage…and GOD, I LOVE THEM FOR IT. Life is never boring when living with children. Imperfect people raising imperfect people. Perfect.
I mean, really, come on…who wants Stepford children?
Love to all, Mindy
amber says
i LOVE this post!
my daughter does the same thing. her new trick is to ask if she can “save” some of her dinner.
then will promptly ask for dessert!
the gall of these children! they are SO much smarter and craftier than I ever was as a kid!
kudos to you for giving them “the eye” and props to them for recognizing it for what it was!
Mindy says
“Save some of her dinner”. That’s hilarious! These little kids are certainly crafty, huh? Thank you so much for stopping by and leaving a reply! Very much appreciated!
Mindy
Christina says
Weeeell, you could leave those dinner plates sitting and when they ask for a snack tell them you will warm up their dinner. Teehee. My nephew once went a whole week only eating green beans, nothing else. They are sometimes like little mini terrorists.
Mindy says
I know…aren’t they? I may have to think about leaving their dinner plates out…the cleaning fanatic in me has a really hard time with that. =)
Mindy
Wendy says
I agree, leaving their plates as a reminder of how “full” they were might help,,,,,HOWEVER,,, I once sat at the table in front of a plate full of “monkey balls”,,,,that is what my grandpa called brussle sprouts…. for over 3 hours. I was told I could not get up from the table until I had eaten all three of them! I eventually won! I had a thing for monkeys and just could not bring myself to eat part of them 🙂
Wendy
Mindy says
Wendy, you are too funny! “Monkey balls.” I’m using that next time they won’t eat dinner…I’ll say, “Hey, you could be eating monkey balls right now.” =)
Mindy
Marly says
I love the reference to little dictators. Very funny. Oh, you know what? I agree with you – there is no one way to raise kids. I think it’s easy to go crazy over these kinds of things. And I can see both sides of the coin – good to have discipline; good to have flexibility. I agree with your kids – go with the gut!
Marly
Mindy says
“Dictator” is the only word I could come up with that seemed strangely appropriate enough. =) And it really is a delicate balance between encouraging the proper way to eat and discouraging blatant refusal to eat. Man, this parenting stuff is tough! =)
Mindy
Mindee@ourfrontdoor says
I leave the plates too. My oft repeated phrase is, “That’s fine you don’t have to eat it. But if you get hungry later, this is what you’re going to have.” If leaving it out bothers you, you could stick it in the fridge and pull out as necessary.
Mindy says
Oh, I could totally see the following situation. Kids come out, “Mom, we’re still hungry.” And I say, “Great, hold on a second.” Turn around, reach into the fridge, pull out their dinner plates and say, “Here you go!” I am sooo going to do that!
Mindy
The Park Wife says
Mindy,, I feel your pain. This parenting stuff is tough.Sometimes my kids eat like birds and then there are times when they are bottomless pits. Just when you think you got it figured out…..they throw something at you that you weren’t expecting. Little dictators, or terrorists at times.
But, you are doing a great job, sometimes you just got to roll with it (I also suggest running away).
The Park Wife
Mindy says
Yep, my hubby and I feel like we are forever “learning.” These kiddos can really stump you sometimes! I’m always looking around for a Candid Camera host. I am really interested in the “running away” suggestion, though. At least for a night. A hotel room with no kids, maybe some room service and TV Land reruns sounds like heaven to me. =)
Mindy