Food Fight!

We have food fights at our house on a regular basis.  It's always Jared and me against Addie and Kimber.  They usually involve the main course and for Addie it pretty much always involves vegetables. 

But these aren't the types of food fights you see on TV.  No food is thrown across the kitchen, no one gets a spoonful of mashed potatoes to the face.  Instead it's me and Jared trying to get the girls to eat the food that's put in front of them.  They each have a lengthy list of foods they do like but seriously, is it going to kill them to try something new every once in a while?  Or to eat something that some one else enjoys even if it's not their favorite?

On Tuesday I was feeling really good about my day since I had started my Chicken Cordon Bleu at 10:30 in the morning and all I had to do was fix my sides and put it in the oven that evening.  When dinnertime rolled around I gave both Addie and Kimber half of a piece of chicken and it was within moments that the complaints started:

"We've never had this!, I hate this!, What's in here?, Why didn't you make something else?, This looks gross!" 

It gets so old and our words sound like a broken record as we try to explain what's in the food and tell that that if they don't eat they will he hungry later because they won't be getting anything else.


But I was fed up!  It seems like they complain every. single. night.  So I finally told them that they were in charge of dinner the next night.  They had to think of it, cook it and clean it up.  They got really excited but we weren't about to make it easy on them.  We were going to give them a taste of their own medicine.

They decided on breakfast for dinner since it was something that Addie knew she could cook.  Addie took on the pancakes and Kimber was in charge of making syrup and bacon, which I helped her with.

Addie was cooking her little heart out while Jared went on and on about how hungry he was and asked her if she could hurry up.  I kept on Kimber and told her that we were starving so she needed to hurry the syrup up.  They were trying to explain that they were trying to hurry.  I could see Addie getting stressed and I knew it was beginning to work. 

Kimber was in charge of setting the table and had to get that finished while she was still working on the syrup and accidentally let it boil over.  The kitchen filled with smoke so what did we do?  We complained some more!  "It smells in here!  It's so smokey!  What did you do?"

Addie was working so hard on the pancakes but was losing little crumbs along the way.  "Addie you are getting crumbs in the other pancakes!  That's gross!."  The poor girl just kept saying she was doing the best she could.

Eventually dinner was done and on the table.  Jared and I sat down and before we could even pray I started in on them again.  "Is this all?  This doesn't seem like very much food.  Why didn't you make more stuff to go with it?"  I saw Addie's eyes begin to well up with tears and I knew she was going to lose it.  After the prayer we served ourselves and started eating.  But the girls had to get Lucy's food ready before they could eat.  While they worked on that Jared asked if there was chocolate on his pancakes.  (I have ruined my kids and they can't eat pancakes without chocolate chips.  Jared is the black sheep and the only one who likes them plain.)  "I hate chocolate on my food.  There is a piece of chocolate chip touching my pancake."

Poor Addie had had enough.  She darted to her room in tears.  I let her stew while I ate but made sure she heard my complaints.  "Is there brown flour in these?  Who put BROWN flour in my pancakes?  These are cold!  It took so long to make dinner that now my pancakes are cold.  I can't eat these now."  In all reality they were just as yummy as always.  
 
I finally felt like it was time to reveal ourselves and our little scheme.  I went to Addie's room and we talked everything over.  I asked her how she felt when I complained about the food she worked really hard at making and was SO happy when i realized she got it.  She said it really hurt her feelings because she was going the best she could but it was a lot of work.  I reassured her that her pancakes were yummy and she decided to join the rest of us. We talked about it together around the table with Kimber this time and although I don't think it sank in quite as deep, she also got it. 

So did we win this fight?  Addie told me she will always try her food now without complaining and that right there is a small victory.  Kimber had a great time playing restaurant but like I said I think it sank in a little.  Even if we just get a month's worth of complaint-free dinners then yeah, I guess we did win.