Tonight's dinner was leftover pot roast. Jacob took one look at it, declared it "yucky" and pushed it away. Thus began a long evening of battling wills.
You don't sound like a militant jerk to an parent of a toddler or older. We have that problem frequently and we just ignore it as much as possible. We let Bug know that we care but she's not getting out of dinner nor is she going to win the control battle all the time. I generally find that control battles come in phases and you've just started. Bug is starting to figure out there are some battles she's just going to lose (going to school at the moment, had to drag a screaming kid to the car and I was almost in tears at the school office) and in three weeks she gets over it. I see no end in sight and Bug is heading into 7 years old.
Tell Alicia that her cooking is wonderful. Her little critic will complain constantly in the hopes of getting something else or as a control issue. I personally have taken the opinion that if she doesn't want to eat it, fine, she can go hungry or she can eat some other left over. I haven't done it yet but some parents have had success with sending the kid to bed without finishing the dinner and serve it for breakfast and continue till it's gone.
Anyway, you have my sympathies. I hated the 3 to 4.5 age and swore off having anymore kids. Something cut in around 4.5 and made her human again. I'm definitely an older kid mommy. We still have problems now but I feel better equipped to deal with them.
Yeh, I'm not too worried about Alicia taking Jacob's "yucky" comments personally. I'd just like him to learn some respect and that speaking negatively about something someone does for you can hurt their feelings.
Good luck with that.
You don't sound like a militant jerk to an parent of a toddler or older. We have that problem frequently and we just ignore it as much as possible. We let Bug know that we care but she's not getting out of dinner nor is she going to win the control battle all the time. I generally find that control battles come in phases and you've just started. Bug is starting to figure out there are some battles she's just going to lose (going to school at the moment, had to drag a screaming kid to the car and I was almost in tears at the school office) and in three weeks she gets over it. I see no end in sight and Bug is heading into 7 years old.
Tell Alicia that her cooking is wonderful. Her little critic will complain constantly in the hopes of getting something else or as a control issue. I personally have taken the opinion that if she doesn't want to eat it, fine, she can go hungry or she can eat some other left over. I haven't done it yet but some parents have had success with sending the kid to bed without finishing the dinner and serve it for breakfast and continue till it's gone.
Anyway, you have my sympathies. I hated the 3 to 4.5 age and swore off having anymore kids. Something cut in around 4.5 and made her human again. I'm definitely an older kid mommy. We still have problems now but I feel better equipped to deal with them.
Good luck!
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Thanks for your input (and everyone elses)!
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