Solving the dinner battle

by Chanda
(USA)

Every night seemed to bring the same battle to my house.

The silly thing is that I would start to worry about the battle long before it even began.

As the day grew longer I began to feel the anxiety of the dreaded question that was sure to come from one of my children. “What's for dinner, Mom?”

The dread wasn't from what I was making but from what I knew was sure to be their first response.

Yuck, gross, I won't eat that. I was going crazy because the kid seemed to be in control of dinner.

Not only that but getting them to even try the healthy things sometimes felt like it was more effort than it was worth.

I knew it wasn't right but I just didn't know what to do.

I decided that enough was enough. I had tried everything from threats to pleading.

Finally I came up with a reward type system that has worked well for our family.

Each night when they kids eat their main dish of dinner and have at least tried everything I was serving (They didn't have to like it, just be willing to try it) they were given a ticket.

On the ticket they were able to put a food item of their choice that fell into one of several categories. The categories were appetizer, main dish, side dish, fruit or veggies, dessert and drink.

After putting what they would like to eat from one of those categories on the paper it was placed in a jar. At the end of the month I would randomly pull out the papers until each category was filled and then we have a fun filled surprise dinner of their making.

This has really seemed to inspire them and make for a fun night in the process.

I think the surprise of seeing if any of the things they wanted had gotten picked as well as sometimes ending up with a rather mixed up dinner has added a rather fun way to inspire them to eat and lesson that dinner anxiety I used to feel and dread.

I also have found that once we got over that dinner hurtle we could take away that reward and be okay.

We had started something that had become a healthy habit but the rewards are also fun so we have stuck with them.

It will probably be one of those memories to look back on and treasure.

I may never tell the children that this fun family tradition was born out of desperation to reclaim the family dinner.

Now pass the candied yams please.