Catering To My Kids

I’m willing to go pretty far to please my kids but we have a food issue among this family that is going to force me into a “Mommy Dearest” moment much like when Joan and Christina wage war over the rare steak.  I think my results would be much the same as Joan’s, though.  My kids are willful to a fault; I can’t imagine where they got that from.   When I was a kid, you either ate what my mother served or you didn’t eat.   A particular dish comes to mind:  hobo dinners.  Ugh, makes me snarl even thinking about them.  I hated hobo dinners and I still do.  They are basically a patty of meat seasoned with a lot of Worcestershire and other stuff I’m not sure about because I can assure you, I never asked mom for THAT recipe.  The meat was smothered with peppers and onions, wrapped in foil and cooked in the oven.  I knew that smell and would cringe as soon as my nose had deciphered hobo dinners were on tonight’s menu.  To clarify, I’m not throwing my mom under the bus, because my mom did make other things I liked.  I just had a particularly strong aversion to hobo dinners.   I still hate Worcestershire.  I would begrudgingly choke it down because I knew there would be no debate on whether or not I had other options. 

Lily is by far that most finicky eater I’ve ever encountered.  The only foods she’s consistently eaten since she began solid foods has been cheese sticks, macaroni, chocolate of any kind, cereal, cake, biscuits n’ gravy and chips.  Just because she ate it this week, doesn’t mean she’ll eat it again next week.  When she’s around other kids and sees them eating something she typically wouldn’t eat, I’ve watched her follow the crowd and try new things.   She loves her cousin, Hannah, very much.  At a family gathering, I saw her eat pizza which she’d always refused in the past but I guess what was okay for Hannah, was okay for her, too.  I thought:  “Awesome!  We’ve conquered a new food!!!  Yay for pizza!!”  I tried to serve it to her again a week later; no dice. 

Drew’s open to a few more things but not by much.  Drew dislikes things he’s never even tried or anything he presumes to be a fruit, vegetable or anything that could potentially be healthy in any way.  If it didn’t come out of a box, chances are he’ll pass.  I’m a pretty bomb cook and it’s completely wasted on my kiddos; they barely eat half of what I cook.  I could work all day to prepare a five star meal and Drew would ask, “Do we have any hamburger helper, Mom?”  This is the moment where I hope the kids will someday realize the error of their ways and go in on a joint gift of a round of botox for me when they’re older to make up for the amount of facial scrunching and tugging they’ve caused me over the years.  I digress…  There are a few things I cook that Drew likes but are secretly loaded with items he “dislikes” because he can’t see them.  There’s been many a Mexican standoff at the dinner table where I’ve revealed the true ingredients in that dish he likes so much.  It doesn’t phase him and he will continue to believe he doesn’t like those particular foods while scarfing down the spaghetti that’s loaded with onions, bell peppers and basil which all make his “dislike” list.

So like I said before, I go to great lengths to keep them happy and am guilty of cooking a meal for Jason and myself and then making as many as two other meals out of a box for the kids.  I’ve slowly been transformed into a short order cook.  However, I’ve hit a wall this morning when I found myself arguing with Reid over him requesting krabby patties for breakfast and then acting like a brat about my refusal.  He’s my only kid that will pretty much eat anything so seeing him show signs of being finicky, is going to crack me.  Even if I made him a burger that looked like a krabby patty, he wouldn’t eat all those onions, tomatoes, etc.  I served him waffles and before I knew it I was googling sweet confections that resemble krabby patties.  I’m not sure in this moment, if I’m pleasing my kids or just making them downright rotten.  I just can’t bring myself to go the “eat it or starve” route but I’m getting tired of cooking enough for three families just to please everyone in my family.  I’m having a moment of questioning whether me being a complete pushover when it comes to my kids is good for them or slowly turning them rotten.  In this moment, I’m seriously leaning towards rotten but I’d bet you money I’ll probably make those damn krabby patties anyway.