Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Fair exchange no robbery

Apparently, toddlers are meant to become fussy eaters as a biological imperative. In that, once they learn how to walk & start wandering off on their own, they must outgrow that babyish habit of putting everything in their mouth or risk death by brightly coloured poisonous berries and the like. Unfortunately, both my children were fussy eaters even before they hit that annoying no-eat stage, so the toddler close-down on tasting and trying new stuff has been (a) of epic proportions and (b) going on for ever round here.

I reckon Climber was about 7 before he'd even try something as radical as a hot-dog with sauce, but at least his sweet-tooth led him to try new stuff if it was coated with sugar. And these days he is reasonably good about trying new and different food -thank you Masterchef- although the incident with the snow-peas (both children in tears because I made them eat ONE DELICIOUS SNOW-PEA each OMG WTF) was a slight blip in his improving record. At least he tried to like the snow-pea - which is why he ended up distressed - unlike Cherub who viewed it with misgiving from whoa-to-go and was never going to like it, never. Cherub, you see, is just terrible, and even sweet stuff is viewed with distrust. I have to tell you that as chief food provider, I find it more than a little insulting, this suspicion in my child's mind that I am continually trying to find new ways to poison him.

Anyway. The menu at our house, especially where the children are concerned, is limited and repetitive. And then last Saturday night as I was scouring the fridge for something easy, nutritious and quick to serve them for dinner, I bethought me of boiled eggs and decided to give them a shot, knowing that Climber likes scrambled and poached eggs and in fact, greedily scoffed one of the boiled eggs we'd cooked for Easter decorating which had cracked and couldn't be used. So I boiled up the eggs and served them with raw carrot-sticks and the pumpkin-pea-and-corn fritters known as Shrek Patties round these parts. Climber said yum and proceeded to polish off everything, but I took one look at Cherub's face and knew that even if he liked the boiled egg, he wasn't going to like the boiled egg. We tried. We put salt on, we put it in on toast, we talked it up, but eventually I knew I was looking down the barrel of stand-over tactics (which I hate using for food, except for the bit where I use dessert as a carrot-and-stick ie all right then no icecream for you) or: Bribery.

And that is how, my friends, even though I am anti trading-cards (waste of paper and money), especially the Australian Rules Football cards that all Cherub's Grade One friends are mad for, to the point that I didn't even let Cherub use his own money to buy the stupid official AFL folder he's been begging me for, because we don't even watch or care about the AFL, that is how we came to this:

footyfolder3002

One stupid football card folder paid for with his own money in exchange for eating a boiled egg without whinging. I think the expression on his friend's face shows exactly my opinion of those stupid cards, but the good news is, he ate the egg. With barely any whinging and only slowed by his continually popping out of his chair to discuss and arrange exactly where and when he could go and buy the folder.

15 comments:

  1. SO....that's an interesting compromise.

    Is it about lack of whinging? Or food variety?

    Because BOTH are important, I admit.

    Still, full marks for the battle go to YOU!

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  2. You know, we just get through the eating thing any way we can. I yearn for the day when I can cook something *imaginative* and the kids will at least try it.

    I have fussy eaters, one more than the other, and both are very tall children so I have assumed that those "i only eat air" cults must have something going for them because my kids have grown rapidly mostly on an air diet combined with vegetables eaten with bribery sauce.

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  3. What is it with kids??? I cooked my 2 year old nephew roast lamb, roast spuds and raost pumpkin lastnight and he wouldn't eat it.... he ended up having jelly snakes for dinner.
    I might have to try your bribery technique next time!

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  4. I think you should have loaded up his plate a bit more to get the most benefit out of the folder!

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  5. ...but he looks SOOOOO happy to have his AFL folder.
    plus he did say to me after dinner that he liked the boiled egg.

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  6. Now, I don't want to depress you Ms Stomper but I was a very, very fussy eater as a child. I didn't get over it / grow out of it until I was in my 20s.
    And at least you didn't do what my grandmother did, just keep serving up the same meal until you DID eat it!

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  7. Stomper, what a great post! We too have a fussy eater (and I suspect the little one will be just the same - sigh). It can be HARD WORK. I love your 'shrek patties' - that made me smile a lot because in this house we have Captain Featherswords. They're rissoles with pureed veg in but shhhhh, don't tell anyone....

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  8. I enjoyed reading this post SO MUCH!

    You wrote it very well and I almost felt like I was there. I love the "snow pea incident".

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  9. The motto here is "whatever it takes". So if that meant 6570 packs of trading cards between birth and the age of majority, then so be it.

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  10. Seems a very fair price to pay. I hope the smile on his face while eating the egg was the same as the smile he is showing while sorting his cards.

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  11. And once again the words of 'The Gambler' spring to mind...

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  12. You could have signed my name to this. We had a meltdown just Monday night over chicken quesadillas while I was saying: "But they taste like pizza!" and J.T. was insisting they were gross, vile things and he wanted a real pizza. He made up his mind he wasn't going to like it before he even saw it. And then it smelled funny... It ended with him in tears and me muttering four letter words under my breath.

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  13. oh i can't tell you how much this made me giggle! interesting theory too, makes sense to me. I love the photo of your boy and his mate - classic. Good luck getting them to eat again tonight! I come from a family of fairly fussy or 'plain' eaters and I recall one evening falling asleep at the dinner table after refusing to even try my pumpkin soup. Needless to say, it's my favourite soup now - but lords knows how i ever got the courage to actually taste it...

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  14. My son was very pernickety when he was small. He grew up to love all the right things, and makes wonderful Lentil Salads.
    Bribery is an essential part of child rearing.

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  15. Thank you for this post. I was pretty sure it was just our household in which the child will only eat about five different foods. I see other people's kids eating seaweed, dried apricots, you name it. Not mine.

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Don't let the cat get your tongue.