I hate the way my children eat…
They don’t like green things, won’t try new stuff and squint suspiciously at anything in sauce.
If it’s not beige or shaped like a toy, they won’t try – not hardly a nibble.
Then splat, splat, splat. There’s ketchup everywhere. Surely it all tastes the same.
And they’ll spin and tip, elbows sideways. “Ooops, silly me,” when another dollop drops.
“Put your cutlery down between bites. Not there – on the plate.”
“Shut your mouth when you chew.”
“Sit up. Don’t grab. Elbows off the table.”
How many more times must I say the same old thing? They clearly don’t think it’s worth hearing.
When I was little you ate what you were given – whatever colour it might be – cleaned your plate and said “thank you very much” afterwards.
It’s true the family pet may have had the benefit of breakfast crust and gristly bits, but at least we knew what we should have been doing.
For a while my son’s relationships with food were on the autistic spectrum, but I can’t believe that’s entirely the case now. Or was the damage done in the early years and now it’s bland and breaded pap forever?
Actually that’s a little unfair, one of the Boys has grown up game enough to have a go at new dishes.
And they do. Or, at least, several times every week I produce something off menu, a variation on a theme or a twist that takes the acceptable somewhere healthier. But there are often sighs, eye rolls, nibbles so small they can’t be measured by science, and eventually the new thing abandoned after a light mauling.
“I’m fine,” they mutter edging away from the table. “No you’re not, I think. You’re ill mannered and have the palate of an infant.” I don’t often say it because when I do, they flee faster looking at me like I’m a ticking bomb.
Do I care too much about food, what and how it’s eaten? Are they really doing it to wind me up and elsewhere they have the manners and appetite of angels?
Of course, you can’t make someone like something, but it shouldn’t be too much to ask that food is greeted enthusiastically and eaten properly? Just because it’s not on your Top Three Favourite foodstuffs list, doesn’t actually mean you dislike it.
And it’s not as if I haven’t asked – I’ve lost count of the number of ways.
Is it time to say “OK, eat the rubbish you want, become overweight and unhealthy, suffer the conditions that come with that. Forget decent table manners. You’ll learn quick enough that there are others like your mother who hate slovenly table manners and they won’t want to eat with you”?
Please help – I need to call time on the chimps’ tea party.
By Cheryl via Flickr. |
Older Mum says
I remember it being very much that in my day too – you ate what was on the plate and didn't leave the table until (most of it) was eaten. I've forgotten how many times I ask Little A to sit properly at the table! Ps. what happened to that story prompt/linky? Tweet me! X
sabrina montagnoli says
My hubby is a stickler for good table manners so we have a bit of a fight at our dining table! I'm just happy to get through dinner without turning on the TV! I'm not sure when it starts to go wrong…I think it's a battle I just stopped fighting and just wanted him to eat something anything so I started giving in and well then it was a downward spiral!
Ellen Arnison says
I just realised that I say the same things over and over and no one listens!
Ellen Arnison says
There are times nutrition and an easy life are the only way to get through it. I really don't know how to get through in a balanced way.
Iota says
It seems to come right when they get to their teens, and are so starving hungry that they will eat anything and everything, and you can insist they have nice manners and make it happen, just by witholding the food till they do. I speak from the experience of having 2 teenage boys, and having done my share of the nagging and cajoling over the years. Bring on the growth spurts!
Iota says
It seems to come right when they get to their teens, and are so starving hungry that they will eat anything and everything, and you can insist they have nice manners and make it happen, just by witholding the food till they do. I speak from the experience of having 2 teenage boys, and having done my share of the nagging and cajoling over the years. Bring on the growth spurts!