Three New Tomato Converts

raindrops, I hope you wrote that note just before you and your family left Long Island for higher ground.

Ted

[Mudman]

We use the slightly more poetic, "You get what you get, and you don't throw a fit."

Dice is correct! Children are intelligent, thinking individuals. That is why we encouraged ours to use their intelligence and cognitive abilities to choose between risk and rewards. They understand as adults that you have to make choices in life even when all options seem unattractive.

We have a couple as friends who have a forty year old son living at home with them. The son has advanced college degrees but has never held a job long term. His parents say "he hasn't decided what to do in life". The truth is, they never taught him how too or required him to make decisions as a child or young adult. I sometimes wonder how he will cope when the gravy train comes to an end and he will be required to make wise decisions.

As a side note, the son still complains if his mother doesn't cook food exactly how he wants it. He still complains if his mother fails to wash a favorite shirt when he wants it. I could continue with a long list of his complaints, but the truth is; it drives me up a wall thinking about how his parents permissive attitude has handicapped him for life.

Ted

[raindrops27]

Ted~ we're riding it out. Just came back from the store again. Because, yesterday C#stco of all places was devoid of any bread, and or bakery products. I think, I am giving up on my search of shelf/powdered milk/bagels. (May go to target, they say they may get more shelf stable milk later noon)Will just make some banana muffins, and call it. That and fruit, will suffice for breakfast. Until, electricity is restored. If, it goes out. I am prayerful it will be restored sooner, rather than later. (The box stores are out of, generators.)But, thank you kindly for your concern.

Mudman~ I love it! But fits? Nooo.. My kids are not allowed to throw fits. When they stomp, around the house. They stomp quietly on tip toes. lol Or, when they really are perturbed, and wish to slam a door, to show their disdain. They push their door's really hard, but remember to make sure. It comes to a quiet close. lol. Oh, the tales, I could tell about my babies. Kids, are such a joy, and a blessing.

Well, I am off, the kids and I have baking to do.

Be Safe & God Bless.

Melissa

[hill60]

Our philosophy with children and food. First I make a an effort up to a point to make food we all like, but cannot please all five of us all the time. They all have choices with food. Pushing away their plate if they are full or don't like the food is OK. They get to pick out one thing if they truly don't like it but no more than one. When they decide they don't want to eat they are making a choice to not get treat after dinner but it is still a choice. I believe in choices for kids but the choices need limits

I don't think there is any record of a child starving themselves to death when presented proper food and given a choice to eat or not it's up to them.
At my house I have a fridge magnet that says Today's menu choices Take IT or Leave It.

[dice]

Obviously, you were treated unfairly, as a child.

It was not that it was unfair. It was simply that I was a picky eater,
and I did not see any good reason why I could not skip something
altogether that I found unpalatable. I did not feel that I needed to eat
some alternative, I was just not going to eat *that* (whatever *that*
was, and regardless of who else was eating it).

I did not buy the "hair shirt philosophy", where bad tasting food is
just one of those things that you have to put up with. It seemed to me
that simply not eating it was a perfectly good alternative.

(No pie and ice cream was a small price to pay for not having to put a
bite of macaroni-and-cheese in my mouth. Wild horses could not drag
me to the table, etc.)

I can't believe you didn't like macaroni and cheese. While it was rarely served at our dinner table (too many empty calories), I happen to love it. Two of our grandsons grew up believing it was the perfect food and were more than happy to eat it three times a day, usually between ball games when you only have one hour between the end of one game and the start of the next game. I know many people who believe they have the perfect recipe by using different cheeses. I don't believe anyone has ever improved on the original Kraft macaroni and cheese in a box.

Ted

[dice]

[macaroni-and-cheese]
I could not even stand in the same room with it when
it came out of the oven. Nauseating.

[lurley]

mac n cheese.... not for me either. But TOMATO mac n cheese, that is a different beast altogether... yum!

[lakelady]

Kids can be so much fun, and so frustrating when it comes to foods they refuse to eat. My older son now loves tomatoes as long as he sees some mozzarella and basil nearby , but will tolerate them also now in other foods. My 12 year old still refuses EWWW tomatoes ....ugh. When I was a kid it was the parmesan cheese that we would cover up foods we didn't like, lol....that's what kids in Italian families do I guess . I never taught my kids that trick!