din-din is what again?

tonight we are eating "but nobody likes it."

yeah. i have 2 extrememly pick y kids and they have to deal with whatever it is i decide to cook. i am the provider and i provide. nowhere in my contract does it say i have to be a short-order cook or fix everyone something that they will like. with the 2 littlest ones, that would be pizza and chicken nuggets for every meal, day in and day out world without end amen. for the record, i fix A LOT of varied meals; the younger ones are just so vocal about their dislikes (which they find after they taste the food, is actually yummy), they never give it a chance without an argument. i have come to the conclusion that they are simply drama whores.

so we have a lot of conversations that go like this:

mom: foooooooood.

child: what is it? ew. i don't like that. i'm only going to eat bread.

mom: how old are you again?

child: five.

mom: then you'll take five bites of each thing on your plate, just like you're told to do every night. (fortunately for them i only put the number of bites they are required to take on their plate, so they usually end up cleaning their plates anyway. sooooo clever.)

child: nooooo! i don't wannnaaaaa! i don't want dessert! punish me with bread and butter! (for clarification, that is what they get if they take one bite of everything and refuse to eat anything more. i will not starve them, but i will not cater to whims either.)

mom: sit down and eat or stand in the corner and you can eat cold nasty food when the rest of us are done.

child: okaaaay. yuck. (pouting. faces from calvin and hobbs cartoons appear, accompanied by gagging sounds.) (or , pouting. then, hey!! this is really good. i don't like it, but i love it.)

i have a take on the classic green bean casserole that makes it into a one-pot meal. i add cooked ground turkey and toss in some rice. one night, i discovered i was out of ground turkey, so i tossed in some frozen pieces of chopped cooked chicken instead. i answered the question of "what is it?" with "nobody likes it so it doesn't matter what i call it." i waited for the gagging sounds to commence and they all went. "wow, mom. this is the best casserole you've ever made!"

so we are having "but nobody likes it" for dinner tonight. and the kids are actually cheering.