Boulder Dude

Whereas the picky eaters I know were catered to in every way as a child and now will not eat anything that they did not eat as a child. So, in a way I am the same but different. No problem with new and different but huge problems with bland tasteless things I had to eat over and over again.

Not to dispute your theory, but I (who consider myself a very picky eater, though much less so these days) was never catered to. Heck, Katherine is catered to more than we were -- we were presented with what was cooked for the family meal, and that's what we ate. Well, except when we snuck the salad tomatoes into the trash can.

Part of what led to the pickiness was that my *Dad* was catered to (and he has a relatively limited palate). So we had X, and we had Y, and maybe on occasion Z ... but A-W were Right Out. But, by God, if X was what was being served, we ate X or we went hungry. :-)

And A-1 -- that was a staple in our house (and I grew fond of it on all sorts of things, much to Margie's dismay).

Those types of Cereals were a "treat" once a year affairs like for camping or such. For the most part it was Cheerios or something like Rice Chex. Junk food things were treats and nothing that I could demand. Two of my step sisters on the other hand were catered to by my Step-Father and they did not have to eat anything that they did not like, and were perfectly happy to eat plain rice with ketchup (kid you not).

While there were times when junky cereals made an appearance (mmmmmm ... Capn Crunch ...), for the most part these were explicitly known as "Camping Cereal" (from the small little boxes you'd open up and pour milk into how-cool-is-that?). And junk food was never on the menu, and not even conceptually considered when at the store.

I'm pleased we've carried both of those traditions over to Katherine.

Though ... rice and ketchup? I could have gotten into that. Well, I did corn and ketchup, and rice and A-1. Does that count? (Though never as the "okay, if that's all you will eat, fine" meal.)

Dave, I consider you *far* from picky.

On of the D&D players will not eat much more than meat and potatoes and what you would be able to get at a fast food place. Pizza being Pepperoni...maybe sausage and Bacon, and all of this because his mom would only make what he wanted to eat.

So because of this he will not eat anything other than a very limited types of food.

Yes, there was one night that My Mom and Step-father had a date night and it was decreed that the eldest Step-Sister would be the one to cook dinner:

Loose cooked Hamburger.

White rice.

I saw it as a starting point and the dinner itself and added green onions and egg and made fried rice...kinda. They were horrorfied. ;P

A1 is good, but I have found that HP is better. :)

Actually, I'm a terribly picky eater who was not catered to at all growing up. We ate what my mother put in front of us, period. And if we didn't? We sat at the dinner table until bedtime. Mom was a single parent working 50 hours/week and did not have time to "cater" to anyone.

But I honestly think that contributed to my being a more picky eater. Example: green beans. My mom would make them and I literally had to choke them down. To this day I won't touch green beans, and just the sight of them makes me want to gag. Same with most vegetables, really. I was "tortured" with eating them as a child, never aquired a taste for them, and now I avoid them like the plague. lol! There is nothing I am willing to eat just for the sake of eating - I eat what I enjoy eating, period. And I'm not an overweight person for it either - all 125 pounds of the picky me that I am. :P

One thing I've learned as a parent - you have to pick your battles. Arguing with my children about food is just not something I'm willing to waste my time on. I try to make things I know they enjoy. I ask that they try new things at least once (but usually twice to be sure, and then again when they're older). But I will not force my children to eat anything - too many bad memories of having to literally choke down nasty food when I was a kid. :P That doesn't mean they have to live on crap, either. There are plenty of other options out there. Not one of my children is even remotely in danger of being overweight, so my methods must work just fine.

I say that parents that lack the ability to convince a kid to voluntarily eat a plate of green beans aren’t cut out for parenthood. If you can’t outsmart a 3 year old, then what the fuck are you doing raising one?

Honestly, I think this statement is a bit on the asinine side. I think the author of the blog post has some valid points, certainly. But I am simply a firm believer in picking my battles with my children. It's not about outsmarting them. It's about respecting that they are individuals with tastes of their own - and God didn't put me on this earth to be a dictator, He blessed me with being a Mom.

My experience with tomatoes is the same as Ladienyte's with green beans. I suspect that, had they not been forced on me, I'd have found my way to them eventually. As it is, they make me (in a raw state) gag.

We encourage Katherine to try different things, and one of my few rules is that if she orders something she give it a good try (and not expect to get dessert if she doesn't eat an adequate amount of it).

We were raised more like Dave...with exceptions. Some things were considered a delicacy, and if you didn't eat them, then more for me! Any kind of fresh fruit or vegetable especially (we lived 30 miles out of town, so we mostly had canned stuff).

Also -- now that Ray's old enough to grasp consequences, she gets the Katherine treatment.

Yep, my kids have the same consequences as Katherine. Well, predominantly my 6 year old as my other two are too young to grasp the concept. But if my 6 year old refuses to give something 'the old college try' - no dessert. But that's the extent to which I am willing to "punish" my kids for not eating something - I simply am not willing to "force" them to eat it at all costs.

Pick your battles. That's my motto and I'm stickin' to it. *lol*

As a sidenote, all of my kids prefer (for example) cereals like Rice Chex, Cheerios, Kix, etc. My sister-in-law actually laughs at them because she stocks her house with "kids cereals" and my kids always ask for the plain ones. And furthermore, my 6 year old is not at all fond of traditional desserts, he just doesn't have a sweet tooth. For snack in the evening, his favorite thing to have is Honey Nut Cheerios. :) It goes to show that in spite of the fact that I am not willing to force my kids to eat things, they haven't turned into "poptart and twizzlers eating bastards". Heh. ;)

Desserts...

I have never been a big dessert eater simply because Desserts were only around for Birthdays and Holidays....again, something special.

The only thing here that I truly find myself taking issue with is the "eat everything on your plate or sit there" thing. My mom took the "try it at least once" approach, did -not- offer alternatives, but did -not- force us to 'finish everything'. In fact, we were encouraged to stop eating when we felt full.

It simply baffled the hell out of me when I went to boarding school and was told that if we didn't finish everything on our plates, we had to sit there in the dining hall until we did. Six months after I arrived, I was put on "Half rations" along with 12 other girls. The reason? Well, strangely enough, we all gained too much weight! The director of our facility just couldn't figure it out and blamed 'snack times' (where we were also required to eat), so we got half the normal size servings of everything from breakfast to dinner and lost 'snack times' completely. That would solve the problem!

I've had food issues ever since. Not only did I fully develop the ulcers I'd been in danger of ("If it's not a documented food allergy, we don't care if acidic fruit juices make you vomit."), but food became my worst enemy, and it took years to learn how to eat right.

Some of the old school methods aren't really the best in my opinion. With Caedyn, we've tried to provide (healthy) options rather than dominate his mealtimes, and I think the occassional compromises and continuing educations about food and healthy eating have done him a far better turn than what happened to me.