The Error of My Ways
Life can be so extreme. Like I am a completely amazing, genius one day and a completely ridiculously, attrociously, stupid, moron the next. There's very rarely an in between.
For weeks, possibly months, Alexa has been locked in a food war with us. It's part of toddler-hood I suppose. Yesterday I realized that I am probably 75% of the problem though. We ate dinner at a friend's house last night. I didn't ask Lulu if she wanted the yogurt and spaghetti noodles- I was at a friend's house, I didn't want to be difficult. I figured if she ate, she ate. If she didn't, she didn't. Well, low and behold, she ate all the yogurt, and even ate a few noodles!! I was stunned! It wasn't a big disagreement, there was no excessive sighing on my part, and no stomping and screaming, "No!" at me.
This is what a typical meal exchange sounds like. I walk into the kitchen with Alexa and I stand at the cabinets and ask: "Alexa do you want, cereal?" "Noooo." "Alexa, do you want peanut butter?" "Nooooo." (inward groan by me) "Alexa, do you want yogurt?" "Noooo" "Pancake?" "Noooo" "Punch in the nose?" "Nooo" and then I ignore her and fix my breakfast and wait until she tells me what she wants. And then I feel frustrated that she didn't eat anything healthy.
Wait, what? Seriously? Was I doing that? Yes. Yes I was. See what I mean about being a completely ridiculously, attrociously, stupid, moron sometimes? I can't believe I was doing that. I didn't even realize I was doing that. No wonder she ate crap all the time. I eat crap when left to my own devices too.
So today I decided to just give her what I thought she would eat. This morning I gave her cereal and yogurt for breakfast. She ate it! How amazing! This must be what the rest of you geniuses do everyday and why you don't have constant food battles. At lunch, I forgot my new policy and started to ask her what she wanted, and then when I got frustrated that she said "nooo" to everything, I remembered I wasn't asking her anymore (habits are hard to break- what can I say?) and so I just fixed her lunch: peanut butter, applesauce, and a couple of crackers. What do you know, she ate some of everything! And . . . she wanted my watermelon!!!!! What's really bad is, while we're sitting there Andrew says, "You know Mom, maybe she doesn't want you to ask if she wants to eat that stuff, because she's eating all the things you offered her and she said "No!" to." Huh. Even the 7 year old figured it out before I did.
Thankfully I've seen the error of my ways, and I am done asking her what she wants. I'm pretending we're eating at a friend's house everyday and fixing her what I want and if she eats it, great. If she doesn't, oh well. She'll eat eventually.
For weeks, possibly months, Alexa has been locked in a food war with us. It's part of toddler-hood I suppose. Yesterday I realized that I am probably 75% of the problem though. We ate dinner at a friend's house last night. I didn't ask Lulu if she wanted the yogurt and spaghetti noodles- I was at a friend's house, I didn't want to be difficult. I figured if she ate, she ate. If she didn't, she didn't. Well, low and behold, she ate all the yogurt, and even ate a few noodles!! I was stunned! It wasn't a big disagreement, there was no excessive sighing on my part, and no stomping and screaming, "No!" at me.
This is what a typical meal exchange sounds like. I walk into the kitchen with Alexa and I stand at the cabinets and ask: "Alexa do you want, cereal?" "Noooo." "Alexa, do you want peanut butter?" "Nooooo." (inward groan by me) "Alexa, do you want yogurt?" "Noooo" "Pancake?" "Noooo" "Punch in the nose?" "Nooo" and then I ignore her and fix my breakfast and wait until she tells me what she wants. And then I feel frustrated that she didn't eat anything healthy.
Wait, what? Seriously? Was I doing that? Yes. Yes I was. See what I mean about being a completely ridiculously, attrociously, stupid, moron sometimes? I can't believe I was doing that. I didn't even realize I was doing that. No wonder she ate crap all the time. I eat crap when left to my own devices too.
So today I decided to just give her what I thought she would eat. This morning I gave her cereal and yogurt for breakfast. She ate it! How amazing! This must be what the rest of you geniuses do everyday and why you don't have constant food battles. At lunch, I forgot my new policy and started to ask her what she wanted, and then when I got frustrated that she said "nooo" to everything, I remembered I wasn't asking her anymore (habits are hard to break- what can I say?) and so I just fixed her lunch: peanut butter, applesauce, and a couple of crackers. What do you know, she ate some of everything! And . . . she wanted my watermelon!!!!! What's really bad is, while we're sitting there Andrew says, "You know Mom, maybe she doesn't want you to ask if she wants to eat that stuff, because she's eating all the things you offered her and she said "No!" to." Huh. Even the 7 year old figured it out before I did.
Thankfully I've seen the error of my ways, and I am done asking her what she wants. I'm pretending we're eating at a friend's house everyday and fixing her what I want and if she eats it, great. If she doesn't, oh well. She'll eat eventually.
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