Column on getting kids to eat - not what you might expect

[Happyshirt]

"[email protected]" wrote:



For me, food was a strongly visual experience. I could be counted on to
not like anything.

I grew up on bread and butter and plain hamburgers (NO cheese or
anything!) and milk. Mac'n'cheese was disgusting! Mac in butter sauce
was great! I didn't eat much else until college. Chocolate milk in my
breakfast bowl of Cheerios.

Once I was invited to dinner at some upstairs neighbors. They served
spaghetti in Ragu pasta sauce. I forced myself to eat it, not wanting to
seem ungracious. Then it hit me, "I remember this flavor and remember
liking it!" So began one of the greatest food comebacks of all time.

Andy

[` Nammi <33]

In article ,
Orlando Enrique Fiol wrote:


It doesn't take being poor for that to be the case. We are pretty
solidly middle class, but our family is made up of nine people. It
doesn't take too long to realize that coming up with alternatives for
everyone isn't going to fly. And your last line is spot on, IMO.

Regards,
Ranee @ Arabian Knits

"She seeks wool and flax, and works with willing hands." Prov 31:13

http://arabianknits.blogspot.com/

[andrehamson]

In article ,
"J. Clarke" wrote:


I actually debate that. If I go to a dinner party and hate the food,
I cannot just not eat it without offending the host. I take a small
amount and eat it as best I can. If I visit a foreign country and am
not used to their cuisine, it is the height of rudeness to flatly refuse
it or take a bite and push the plate away as I don't care for it. If a
person from a foreign country visits and makes a meal for me, it is rude
to stop eating it because it disgusts you.

We train our children to take small amounts of new things, try
everything, eat at least three good bites of it and to be gracious.
Even if the food isn't good, the fact that someone made it for you shows
that they care for you and you ought to be thankful for that. The
example I've used with our children is that when they bring us handfuls
of weeds or scribble drawings, we didn't toss them or make remarks about
how they weren't really as nice as they ought to be. It was a gift from
their hearts and would be hurtful and rude to treat it otherwise. We do
not wish to hurt people's feelings when they have gone to the effort
(and expense) of making a meal for us. We want to be open to new
things, because we like travel and visiting with people from other
nations. We are Christians and believe in missions (please don't go all
flammable on me over this), and a missionary won't be very effective if
he can't even handle eating the foods of the new nation or tribe.

Eating at someone's home, even one's own, is not the same thing as
cooking for oneself or eating at a restaurant. You are not taking care
of only your own needs or preferences nor are you paying someone to
please your palate.


Also, I don't know of many (any?) parents who exclusively cook things
that their children hate. Even when I make things that someone or a few
people don't like, I make sure to have other things on the plate they
do. I am one of the few people who likes sushi in our house, so we
rarely eat it. OTOH, neither Rich nor I like mushrooms all that well,
so, though we don't discourage our children from eating it, we don't
really have it at home a lot. We used to give all our foods we didn't
like _to_ the children when they were very little and ate off our plates
at restaurants. We'd give them bites of the other parts, too, but Rich
would give them his zucchini and I'd give them my mushrooms and they
were fine with it. It was just a different food to them.

Regards,
Ranee @ Arabian Knits

"She seeks wool and flax, and works with willing hands." Prov 31:13

http://arabianknits.blogspot.com/

[Sothe]

On Thu, 03 Mar 2011 11:40:20 -0800, Ranee at Arabian Knits
wrote:




Thank you. That is very reasonable.

--

Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground.

[ShelFish]

In article
,
Dan Abel wrote:


I agree with the first part of this, but not the second. I am not a
short order cook and this is not a restaurant. We buy and cook
nutritious food that tastes good. If one person doesn't like one part
of it, that is kind of his problem. I won't make them eat a ton, but
because children's tastes change, we do require them to take a thank you
portion (three bites at least) and eat it politely. They do not need to
have any more after that, and if they want seconds, they choose whatever
they want seconds on, rather than the whole meal.

Part of how we are teaching them to be polite is that you may say yes
please or no thank you to things you are offered as a choice, you may
not ask for something not offered. Unless you have a medical or
religious reason not to eat something, you eat it when it is served, and
make no comment. If someone gives you a choice, you may politely
decline. That doesn't seem so draconian to me.

Really, unless it is a big meal, most adults I know take a little of
everything there is at the table. Unless you're talking a party with
tons of food or a holiday, anyway.

I still make myself eat things I know I don't care for when they come
up, to see if I've changed my mind. I discovered I liked some bleu
cheeses that way and found that rehydrated mushrooms are tolerable to
me.

Regards,
Ranee @ Arabian Knits

"She seeks wool and flax, and works with willing hands." Prov 31:13

http://arabianknits.blogspot.com/

[wavesmachine]

"Ranee at Arabian Knits" wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

You are raising your children beautifully You can be proud!

--
--

https://www.shop.helpforheroes.org.uk/

[toshiba777]

"Lenona" wrote in message
news:1ee5b04a-cfeb-458e-81f0-b6491eecc964@a28g2000vbo.googlegroups.com...


I should add that there's another situation, too. That is, I'm sure
even Miss Manners would give special exemptions for truly horrific
cooking.

Example?

From "Coal Miner's Daughter":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZaZuOdMMZ4

S
P
O
I
L
E
R

I can't play this video right now, so I don't know if it has the
complete scene. However, the point of it was that 13-year-old Loretta
made a pie which Doo, her soon-to-be husband tastes - and he reacts
quite negatively but more or less politely. (Loretta was supposed to
use a cup of sugar, but got careless and used salt instead. As Doo
good-naturedly says: "Makes sense. They're both white.")

---

I have never really understood how people could do that. Aren't those
things in marked containers? When I used a lot of sugar I kept it in a
canisters. Now I just keep it in the bag or box. Salt is in the shaker. I
use Real Salt these days. In the old days I used Morton or a store brand
and I used the big blue (or whatever color) round cardboard container that
it was in.