Wednesday, December 14, 2011

How to suceed in parenting without really trying

My kid doesn't eat pasta.  I know, I know - she's wierd.  I've never encountered a toddler who won't eat pasta.  She doesn't eat rice either, and she's only lukewarm on potatoes.   I'm not 100% convinced she's mine. 

One of the last times we had pasta (because, yes, I still make pasta at least twice a week, and no, I really don't care that she doesn't like it) she told me she only would eat the "clean" ones.   Read:  the ones that don't have sauce on them.   Tonight I thought I'd outsmart her -  no sauce on the pasta!  A smidgen of oil and some cheese.  Voila!  Clean pasta!   Surely she would eat that!

I played it up,  made pasta seem like the most exciting thing in the world.  I actually had the words "yay! I LOVE pasta!" come out of her mouth.   I WOULD BE VICTORIOUS!  The child would eat dinner!

It was only marginally successful.   I had to resort to bribery in addition to clean pasta.  I would only give her meatballs if she ate a certain amount of pasta and I did have to bribe her with hershey kisses from her Advent calendar (which little did she know she was getting anyway).  But I'd say she ate at least 3 or 4 pieces  of pasta.   That's better than 0!

She and I are going to have to come to some sort of agreement.   I'm not going to stop making pasta, and she needs to eat her dinner.  I have a feeling this could go on for the next 16 years.



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