Kids can be picky eaters. Everyone knows this. But last week the pickiness got a little out of control and my frustration with it culminated in a week of PB&J dinners for the kids. Yep, that's right - for the past several days we have had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for dinner (along with cut up fruit, carrots and/or cheese). And the streak will continue until the end of this week.
Here's the story: I got creative one day and decided to make Orange Chicken Stir-Fry for dinner. The kids have had this dish before and liked it. But, on this particular day, it apparently didn't strike their fancy. So all of the time and energy I put into making orange chicken (OK it didn't take that long, but it took longer than a normal dinner takes to put together) was wasted. They ate rice. That's it. No one even touched the chicken or the vegetables. Now it turns out it was a little spicy (according to Jay) but the kids wouldn't have known that because they refused to take a bite. To say I was unhappy was an understatement. And my unhappiness turned into a promise not to cook dinner for a week. So I'm not. Oh, don't worry. They'll get fed. Like I said, PB&J with healthy sides is on the menu every night this week. Jay and I are taking bets as to how long they can go before they start complaining.
They'll still get plenty of variety. I'm encouraging William and Tessa to eat food other than sandwiches for lunch (we do lots of leftovers or easy to make things for lunches). And Henry typically eats a hot lunch at school. So sandwiches for a week won't kill them. Far from it. But it will make me feel better and hopefully drive the point home that dinners around here don't cook themselves. We'll see.
Feel free to think I overreacted. I admit that I probably did. My patience runs a little thin in the winter, when we are stuck inside and it feels like we are on top of each other All. Day. Long. And Orange Chicken Day wasn't a particularly good one from a behavior standpoint - from the time that Henry walked in the door from school, someone was complaining about something. So I snapped. And refused to cook dinner for a week. Oh well.
Next week we'll go back to normal. Dinner will more often than not be hot and freshly cooked. It will not, however, be Orange Chicken Stir-Fry. I've learned my lesson.
2 comments:
I think that you should do that for 2 weeks! I'll cheer you on from across the street!
Way to go! I've done something similar. One thing I do from time to time, because most things with kids go in phases, is try to eat the rainbow. I try to have a variety of food(s) for meals that pose a variety of color. Then I tell them to choose 3 colors for dinner, aside from the main dish. So far Kate is the one with the most points....she eats everything I give her! HA!
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