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The Important Lesson I Taught My Son

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Recently I wrote about how picky my son is when it comes to eating food. I also mentioned that he didn’t extend the picky behaviour only to dinner items but to desserts too.

While reading through all your excellent comments and recommendations, I noticed that Jennifer from Mom vs The Boys made a good point about my boy not liking Ice Cream and I set out to rectify the situation.

I’m a Dad. My job is to teach my kids stuff. Learning how to enjoy a delicacy like ice cream, I believe, is one of my jobs and an important one at that.

I actually hadn’t realized just how important it was until we got to the ice cream shop. I managed to get my son to taste my chocolate ice cream, so he could see that it tasted like chocolate milk, his favorite.

He immediately asked for his own cone and we were off and running!

He treated the ice cream as if it was a trick I was playing on him. As if any moment, a dragon was going to pop out of it and eat him. Holding it in his fingertips and taking licks so small, that it almost looked like he wasn’t eating it at all.

But the ice cream was disappearing and soon he was stuck staring at a half empty cone.

I know what you’re thinking…”What is this guy talking about? You don’t teach a kid to eat ice cream, you just eat it!”

Wrong! What happened next is proof of my heroic act of Daddyism!

Staring down at the vast emptiness the cone had to offer, my son then asked me “What now Daddy? Am I done?”

In that moment, I realized that I had more to offer than simply teaching him that ice cream is delicious. “Why no my boy, you can eat the cone too!”, I responded with joy.

I’m not lying when I tell you that we then spent a good 15 minutes going over cone eating techniques. My son then went to work, in what I can only describe as the slowest cone eating adventure there has even been.

It didn’t bother this Dad one bit. He ate the whole ice cream cone (without spilling in the car) and I couldn’t have been more proud of him!

I’m finding that, with parenting, even the small victories are still victories. Up until a week ago, my son had scoffed at ice cream, especially if it came in a weird crunchy cup.

And I know it was only an ice cream cone and I shouldn’t be proud about my kids eating junk, but I am and I’m not sorry about it. Every step they take in discovering something new is an exciting experience for a parent and I was happy to be a part of this one!

Have you ever been excited or proud of your kids about something others might see as a small or non existent feat? Share it in the comments below!

My Son Hates Food…

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They say a picture is worth a thousand words. I’m not about to write a 1,000 word post, not because I can’t, but because I’m lazy.

The picture above is the beautiful lunch time creation my amazing wife put together for her daycare’s Easter lunch. You’ll notice it looks like one of those Sesame Street skits of “One of these things is not like the other”.

3 perfect Peanut Butter and Fruit Bunnies and one ugly, no makeup, no face Bunny with 2 carrots that it can’t eat because it doesn’t have a mouth.

The empty rabbit is a special lunch modification for my son, who will not touch anything that isn’t a plain piece of bread. Sure he dabbles in carrots, apples and even broccoli if the mood is right but you are essentially looking at his daily feeding.

Before you start the “hide the food in something else” bit, trust me, we’ve tried it. I swear he’s going to become a surgeon someday based on the way he disects every type of food we try to give him, looking for colours that don’t belong.

I sometimes wonder where I went wrong with him in the food department. Daddy loves food. Daddy eats waaayyyy too much of it too. It couldn’t be me! He couldn’t have gotten into my Paint collection, right? Even if he did, this photo wouldn’t scare a child off carrots, would it?

Yeah I know, I’m a monster who draws ridiculously disturbing pictures. We all have our vices. Let’s move on.

He doesn’t even like cake or ice cream or gummy worms!!! The only thing he will eat in the junk department is donuts and thank the lord for that.

Don’t worry, we supplement his diet with vitamins (hidden liquid only because he won’t take a pill or eat a gummy or Flinstone vitamin). We’ve talked to the doctor about it and they said to keep trying new ways to get him to eat his fruits and veggies, so we will.

Some tricks have worked for a few days. The old “I’m gonna eat your food” schtick was good for a couple meals. Then there’s classics like “I’m gonna beat you” or “Apples make you faster and stronger”. Nothing sticks though.

There is some hope though! Recently in a play group circle time, my son was asked what his favorite food was. He responded quickly with this wonderful lie: Apples.

That’s my boy!

Have you ever had problems getting your kids to eat their food? Feel free to share your secrets with me so I can steal them and forget to thank you!

Cheers!