For most families it’s the highlight of the week. A treat everyone looks forward to. A chance to relax, chat and enjoy some delicious food. In our house, not so much.
I’m talking Sunday dinner here.
With two fussy kids, Sunday dinner is just a big hassle. We don’t always have a roast, in fact we don’t often have a roast. But we do try to provide a break from the pizza, frozen food and microwave meals which make up far too much of what the kids eat.
It might be lasagne or a mild curry. It might just be a shop-bought pie with some roast potatoes and some ACTUAL VEGETABLES. But we try, we really try to get the kids to try something and eat something.
My daughter sees carrots being cut…
‘Oh no, are we having carrots?’
‘No, they’re for the rabbit.’
‘Phew!’ And then…
‘Hang on! We don’t have a rabbit!’
But what do we actually get?
A non-stop comedy routine from my younger son. He’s the non-fussy one, but even he can be heard saying things like ‘it’s too filling’ or ‘I’m not very keen on the meat’. So he tries to make everyone laugh. It works with his brother and sister and distracts them further from the meal they are already struggling with. It makes Daddy cross.
There’s talk of farts and toilets, some inappropriate singing…
My eldest moves his food around the plate and eats it as though he’s a contestant on I’m A Celebrity faced with a kangaroo testicle and a fish eye, rather than some corn on the cob and a Quorn sausage. And his table manners are DREADFUL. He’s 12, yet he seems completely incapable of using cutlery. It’s a pretty disgusting sight. Daddy gets cross. I just despair.
And my daughter? Well she just starts slowly and gets slower…
Daddy and I will be half way through our meal before she stops cutting and drinking and talking for long enough to take her first mouthful. Then she laughs at her brother and gets off her chair. More cutting, more drinking, more chatting…
The comedy routine gets louder and more outrageous. My daughter laughs more and more and eats less and less. My eldest gets told off yet again for using his fork badly.
The rest of us have finished our tea AND our pudding. My daughter’s plate is still almost full. She has only been given four slices of carrot.
‘Have you eaten any carrot?’
‘One, I’ve got three left,’ she seems quite proud to have eaten one.
But still we want her to eat more. We are so mean.
So she tries a new tactic: ‘My foot still hurts’
I say: ‘I’m not bothered about your foot hurting at dinner time.’
And she does a little smile and says: ‘My mouth then?’
Nice try.
November 11, 2013
Haha that’s funny, and very smart! I love love roast dinner. I’d gladly polish off all the carrots if there was gravy
November 11, 2013
You can come round any time, then! Set my kids a good example! Thanks very much 🙂
November 11, 2013
This sounds a little like two of my kids. Happily the third will wolf down anything.
November 11, 2013
Our youngest also tries every trick in the book and I often have to stop and think whether sometimes I have been played hahah x
November 11, 2013
Ha ha I can just picture this! Compared to your scenario, I think I have 3 pretty good eaters….my middle one eats everything, like yours 🙂 Love the image of the comedy scene 😉
November 12, 2013
Sounds familiar, Annie has gotten more and more pickier as Ez has started eating everything! Annie often develops mystery illnesses at the dinner table that stop her eating too, but they’ve always disappeared by pudding time, odd eh?!
November 12, 2013
Glad it’s not just us, ladies! I quite like the comedy scenes, Suzanne, but I’m disobeying the rules of behaving at the table when I find it funny!
Funny how the illnesses always disappear by pudding, Em!
Thank you all for commenting 🙂
November 15, 2013
Oh dear, sounds like a lot of stress! Love the tactics that children invent
when trying to get out of things they don’t want to do 😉 #PoCoLo
November 15, 2013
Oh no, what a nightmare! Funny to read about, but I can imagine it’d be stressful. My two are greedy and eat a lot, but they’re only small, and I’m sure being more picky will sneak it at some point soon.
November 15, 2013
Fantastic! Sounds like my house. “Why have you cooked that Mummy?” and half of it ending up on the floor!
November 15, 2013
Oh gosh, you mean the ducking and diving doesn’t stop by the time they get to school age. HELP!!!! #PoCoLo
November 15, 2013
Haha family dinners are the best, aww not just me that get the rude jokes at dinner time then 🙂
November 15, 2013
Ha! Mine are getting pickier as they get older – they used to be so good! Gravy works well to disguise vegetables… 🙂 Before we moved we used to eat dinner together most evenings, since we moved we’ve not managed that – timings just don’t work – but we’ve started doing a Sunday evening again. It’s working quite well, and the comedy makes for a fun family meal 🙂 #PoCoLo
November 15, 2013
LOL I’m always telling my kids to stop chatting throughout the meal and eat more! I have a bit of a dilemma that they devour my homemade meals but will barely touch premade when I’m trying to save time.
November 15, 2013
Yorkshire puddings is our trick with Sunday dinner – all the boys love them. My youngest also gets 4 slices of carrot – but he likes them raw.
November 16, 2013
Ha ha – I love your daughter’s tactics – made me laugh 🙂
November 16, 2013
Thanks very much everyone, it can be stressful, but I’ve lived with their fussiness for so long I couldn’t imagine anything else! Kriss – think yourself lucky they won’t eat processed foods! Introducing those was my downfall I think!
Yorkshire pudding is good, Pinkoddy! All of my kids love them 🙂
I don’t mind you laughing at WWofL! I wrote it to put a smile on people’s faces! It can be stressful, but you have to laugh or you would cry!
November 17, 2013
Your Sunday lunches sound as eventful as ours used to when I was a kid! We love Sunday roast here thankfully! Thanks for linking to PoCoLo x
December 1, 2013
I or we have been lucky with our kids and grand children they eat mostt stuff but our middlle grandson has asburger syndrome ad will not have gravy or any thing touching a different food stuff even chips have to be seperate and he is very slow with his food. The other two eat anything and our eldest when he goes to the italian restraunt the chefs do him stuff to try and see him reject something. He just eat it all know he is onto a good thing.