Picking your battles...
Or sometimes you've just got to let them eat cheese
It's Saturday and I'm making chicken noodle soup (via my crock pot - it's so simple, hearty and soul-meltingly delicious). Everyone has a full bowl of noodles, chicken, carrots and celery, well... everyone except Conner. He is eating processed cheese with his fingers. Again.
I've had a lot of guilt about Conner's 10 Items or Less menu for the longest time. For years, I cooked full dinners at least 5 days a week (and always things remotely "kid friendly" to encourage him to partake) - chicken, mashed potatoes, an array of veggies, lasagna, etc. - all in hopes that at some point, Conner would accidentally smell the cheesy potatoes or saucy lasagna and oh, I don't know, TRY IT.
But see, that'd require him to have at least a morsel of interest. He'd also have to back away from the Cherry Pop-Tarts. He might, Cheez-It gods forbid, have to try a bite of CORNBREAD or taste something HORRID and WRETCHED, like a grilled chicken finger.
I kept offering, making him a plate full of options, as suggested by the pediatrician. His doctor sprinkled golden trinkets of wisdom at me every check-up. "Just offer him a variety! He'll take to something. Trust me" he'd say in his almost mockingly way with his I Have A Medical Degree Therefore I Know More Than You face.
Needless to say, Conner is almost 5 and has yet to take to anything more than chicken nuggets and peanut butter sandwiches.
It's also safe to say we dropped that pediatrician.
Many moms have similar stories. I for one even recall the infamous Hot Dog Showdown featuring a 6-year-old version of yours truly, a cold hot dog and an entire afternoon at the lunch-turned-dinner table.
Conner'd rather starve (but at the time of the Hot Dog Showdown, so would I).
So, he doesn't eat a single! leafy! anything! He does, however, drink a ton of milk, loves frozen yogurt and almost all breakfast foods (who doesn't?).
Yes, I have "mommy guilt" over his poor eating habits, but overall I have to say I might be close to over it. I cook less, clean less and have to fight in the War on Food less (doesn't mean that I don't offer him some of the food the rest of us are having each time we eat). This is just a battle I'm not choosing.
Everyone's happier, especially the fine people who make Pediasure.
Amanda Oliver-Zaremba, a Birmingham native, learned quickly from several sleepless nights, zombie-esque mornings, wrestling matches with car seats in the sweltering Alabama August, and marathon diaper changes, that motherhood was a job that'd take more stamina than skill.
After earning a degree in public relations from the University of Alabama, Amanda dabbled in her profession, eventually finding a niche (and therapy) in freelance writing for her personal blog Hush, Amanda, which allows her the flexibility to stay at home with her two sons, ages 2 and "almost 5". She also contributes to BirminghamMommy.com and MomsWhoThink.com.
She hopes what you read will make you gasp, nod, sigh or laugh, and maybe let you into the world of a young mother doing a job that'll never make her resume.