Food Fights

One of the lass’ favorite gambits is to eat the portions of her plate that she likes, drink a big gulp of her drink (typically milk) and then claim that “She’s full.” She picked up on this game from her older brother, whom, mercifully, has outgrown the act.

From our perspective, it’s a tough call because a kid’s appetite seems to be a pretty variable thing. Are they growing? Did they run around a lot? Did they weasel a snack 3 hours ago? Knowing the lass like we know her, our default assumption is she doesn’t like what’s left on the plate and doesn’t want to eat it.

Now, if we left it at that her diet would consist of pieces of paper, eraser heads, cheerios, peanut butter, marshmallow fluff, candy and cookies. Roughly speaking. So sometimes we let her get away with “I don’t like it” and sometimes we don’t. We recognize that this kind of inconsistency is confusing to kids, but that’s life.

So anyway, dinner last night consisted of leftovers- some roasted chicken, potatoes and fruit. She ate most of everything, but didn’t clean here plate. We allowed that to slide because somehow her plate was actually portioned for her brother whom was having problems of his own at that point. I actually ended up finishing what was left on her plate after she decided she was “full.”

Naturally, an hour or so later she was hungry. She wanted some of the Girl Scout cookies we’d purchased. I told her no, no cookies- “But you can finish the ham sandwich you didn’t finish at lunch.”

“Is it going to be dried out?” she asked.

“It’ll be more dried out tomorrow when you eat it for breakfast.” I replied with a straight face.

“Will I have to eat it tomorrow?” she then asked.

“Not after you eat it tonight.” I replied.

Having gotten the message, she went over and shoveled the sandwich in her mouth. She was still working on half of it in her mouth when she said “I’m still hungry, Dad.”

“Why don’t you finish what’s in your mouth and then we’ll see if you’re still hungry.”

She gave me a big, chipmunk-cheeked, smile. Complete with a little food oozing out of her mouth.