Payback's a Bitch and She's Covered in Cheese

So, the whole trying to get G to eat her veggies thing isn't working. Me and B are fairly picky eaters, him moreso than me. He had an infamous run-in with peas when he was about 7. His mom said he couldn't get up from the table til he ate them. He slept at the table that night, peas still untouched. Next morning his mom says, get up it's time for school. "But mom I still didn't finish my peas so I can't leave the table to go to school..." I think there was a spanking involved afterward.

We all happened to go to the grocery store together and talked about them with her. She indicated she would eat veggies if they had shakey cheese (parmesan) on them. GREAT!!! We pick up two cans of it and tons of veggies. I was making S's baby food anyway so it was a good excuse.

Fast forward to last night. Sausage and bell peppers/onions for dinner with a bit of rice. We put a small piece of red bell on G's plate. Put the shakey cheese on it. She takes it to her mouth...and proceeds to suck the cheese off of it while somehow avoiding actually chewing and swallowing the pepper itself. We try everything to get her to digest it. Bribery, removal of privileges, time-outs, you name it. Nope, not happening. Fer cryin' out loud it's not like it's a bitter vegetable. I intentionally picked a sweeter veg so she wouldn't be so stubborn in fighting us. This went on for the better part of an hour. Finally we gave up but told here nothing else for the rest of the night (she got a fruit bar and a bit of milk at bedtime, we're not that heartless just yet).

Of course, when either me or B talk to our moms about this, all they do is smile and laugh. And remind us of how picky we were at that age, and older. Yeah, thanks, whole lotta good you two are for sympathy...sheesh...

It drives me nuts to hear about kids not being picky and eating whatever is put in front of them, and happily I might add, and how fucking SMUG their parents are over it. You don't hear them going "Oh we had such a struggle with her not eating her organically grown free range babymicroarugulasprouts." These people obviously don't live with the rest of us regular Joes who have nightly battles at the dinner table over carrots. It took forever for G just to eat frikin mac n cheese, the staple of toddlers everywhere!! She loves fruit, meat, and dairy but oh the travails when a green bean enters her field of vision. And there's nothing we as parents can say about it, because we inflicted the same thing on our moms and their cooking.