So when Hailey, my oldest daughter, refuses to eat the food that I busted my ass making I get more than a little pissed off. Correction: She eats everything except the meat portion. I do my best to not show my anger, because I was a picky eater as a kid and still am to this day (I would rather be stabbed than eat something containing onions), and I know from personal experience that trying to pressure kids to eat something will only make them hate it all the more. But I was concerned with my kid's protein intake, so I came up with an idea to get her to eat.
"Hailey! Can you help daddy cook?!"
"Uhh...yes!"
Just like that, she was with me in the kitchen. We were having barbecued ribs for dinner, and I told her after the ribs go on the grill, I'm taking her to the store so we can get our side dishes.
I handed Hailey the dry rub and showed her how to put it on the ribs. She put them on exactly like I showed her. After putting the baby backs on the grill, we were off to Kroger to grab our side dishes.
"Hailey, what do you want to go with your ribs?"
"Uhh..."
"Do you want mashed potatoes?"
"Uhh...yes."
"Okay, we'll get mashed potatoes. Do you want green beans?"
"Uhh...yes."
"Okay. Do you want peas and carrots?"
"Daddy, I LOOOVE peas and carrots!"
"Okay, we'll get those, too."
We grabbed all the stuff and headed back to the house just in time for me to move the ribs around the grill. Fast forward one hour, and I'm showing her how to make instant mashed potatoes. I have her put the butter and the water into the pot, and once the pot was boiling, she (very carefully) poured in the milk. After that, I open up our two cans of veggies and she scoops out some butter to put into them before I put them in the microwave. After that, I took the ribs off the grill and showed her how to brush them with barbecue sauce. She does just fine with that. Her face was beaming with pride the entire time we were making the food, and I made sure to give her a high five every time she did something.
Dinner is ready!
I make up plates for the kids and I, and we all sit at the table. I had a single rib on Hailey's plate. I told her, "Eating ribs is like eating corn on the cob. You grab the bones like this, and you bite into it like this", all the while demonstrating how to eat them. This is the first time we didn't serve it to her chopped up into little pieces. She's going to eat like a big girl.
Laurel, my youngest, has never met a food she didn't like, so she gobbles it all up like it's nothing. Hailey, on the other hand, ate all of her sides and took one bite of the ribs. After that, she refused to eat another bite saying, "Daddy, I don't like it!"
In my head, I am Samuel Jackson. I am superfly TNT. I am the Guns of the Naverone, and I have HAD IT WITH THIS MOTHERFUCKING KID NOT EATING HER MOTHERFUCKING DINNER! However, I remain calm, as I just spent the last four hours bonding with my daughter and I don't want to ruin it by having a temper tantrum that will just cause her to dig in her heels and be more stubborn about eating. I took her plate and ate her rib.
If she just didn't like one kind of meat, I wouldn't care too much, but I was genuinely concerned that she might not be getting enough protein in her diet. She needs it to grow and to be strong. So, like with everything else in my life that I get flustered by, I hit up the internet for advice.
After googling, "My toddler won't eat meat", I was led to this website. It turns out that toddlers having a phase where they don't like to eat meat is common. Because meat can seem more bland than other foods, and is also harder to chew (even if it's slow-cooked, marinated pieces of pork dipped in delicious barbecue sauce), kids often go through a phase where they just don't want it. They suggested some ways of serving the food, as well as concentrating on the types of meat that your kid will eat (in Hailey's case, that would be chicken nuggets, hot dogs, and bologna).
I also learned from another article that kids don't need that much protein. Someone of Hailey's age and size only needs about 18 grams of protein a day to ensure proper growth. She gets plenty of that just from dairy. That calmed me down.
Besides, Hailey is a giant. She just turned four, but even at three years old, she was towering over kids twice her age. Like her daddy, she's a tall one. All signs point to her having her nutritional needs met.
I won't have any days off until Wednesday, but I think I'll serve fish sticks that day. Kids like fish sticks, right?
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