Shitty Mom Award…
A decent (albeit rainy) day has drawn to a close on a negative note with my youngest son. Here is where I will launch into the backstory:
Backstory – I’ve been jonesing for some lasagna roll-ups for dinner lately and was interested in making a batch that all four of us could enjoy. I prefer spinach and cottage cheese, hubby prefers regular meat sauce and kids just want buttered noodles and cheese basically. So we discussed the idea of dinner prepping together the batch of turkey meat sauce roll-ups for daddy and I and leaving everything plain for the boys with JUST CHEESE. Everyone was ok with this plan, everyone agreed to eat it. I’m fine varying the ingredients slightly if it can all be cooked in the same dang pan. I am always a short order cook (my mistake to begin with), so on the rare occasion that we find something we will all eat some variance of – I’m thrilled! Grocery pick up and prep was yesterday and we baked it for dinner tonight after taekwondo.
Big little was not super enthused with them, but after cutting them up and reheating them and allowing a pinch of salt to be sprinkled on top and letting him use his fingers to eat like a pirate, he munched his way through most of his serving and finished his milk and fruit.
Little little was leary from the start as they did not look like his traditionally preferred spaghetti noodles. He whined a bit. We cut them up. He ate a few strawberries. We reheated. He still had not actually put one bite in his mouth. We discussed that allllll the pasta dough we buy is the SAME dough recipe, but the noodle makers squish it into different shapes to make different things with. The key – it all tastes like a spaghetti noodle. Still no bite would pass his lips. He said he never wanted this. He said he never told me he would eat plain cheese and noodle rolls. He swore he hated melted cheese, except (of course) on pizza and macaroni, which he loves. He decreed he didn’t like his roll-ups and that they were disgusting even though he has NEVER had any before. We told him he wasn’t able to say he didn’t like something until he had officially sampled it.
He asked if he could drink his milk and we told him after he tried a bite he could have a sip. That was a NOPE on his end. And that’s where we got serious. No bite of dinner would mean no more fruit, no milk, no alternative dinner being served and no stories before bed. Yep. He took that route.
He sat in his room until bedtime after he cried piteously for a while. I assisted with the jammies and teeth brushing. Then he let me hold him in his rocking chair as I spoke with him about being rude and wasteful. He listened but I don’t think he heard me. So I bid him a good evening and left his room.
I feel like a mean person. I did get myself into the routine of making the kids something different that what we eat – hell, I eat differently than my husband most of the time because I have particular nutritional needs I want to meet. But because this one meal was discussed well in advance and the time was put in early to make it happen for an easy Monday night meal, I’m extremely irritated by the entire thing. It was cheese and noodles for crying out loud. He eats that same crap on our normal spaghetti evenings but the noodles are long and skinny and the cheese is sprinkled on top not baked inside. What. The. Hell.
So I’m feeling rotten letting him go to bed without supper. I’m probably going to go watch a depressing movie and drink hot tea and hope I can sleep. Shitty mom award recipient right here. Oh joy.
