Standoff at Stubborn Corral

It was not our first standoff, and I don’t think it will be our last. My little red-headed darling with the mind of her own and a fiercely huge stubborn streak given to her by both her father and me. We asked for it really.

But, I have grown so tired of it. The dinnertime battles. The comments made by relatives. The ever shifting tastebuds of a five year old who has found out that manipulation can get her what she wants at a very early age.

We’ve tried different tactics, such as:

The ignoring tactic - doesn’t matter a bit to her. She doesn’t give in and eat and gets out of it when no one is looking.

The forceful tactic - Everything from “just two bites of everything” to the “eat it or else” brief touch of Mommy Dearest. Neither results in ANY results or food in her mouth.

The compromising tactic - If you eat just one bite, I will give you a banana. This one reinforces the wheeling and dealing that goes on at the dinner table, which is not good at this point. We could, in fact, be training a future politician or lawyer all over bites of chicken and broccoli.

The bribing tactic - if you eat this, you can have CANDY. CANDY, I say! Did you hear me? Yeah, she has a definite sweet tooth but this is really not a good way to go at all.

My child is a shrimp for a five-year-old. She eats NO vegetables at all. She doesn’t eat meat, except for the occasional turkey sandwich or a meatball on her spaghetti. She won’t even try rice! Rice! The most bland option for a kid! Or mashed potatoes! She’ll only eat McDonald’s hamburgers if prepared with no onions, mustard or pickles. And, only McDonald’s hamburgers are acceptable, thank you very much.

And, then she changes. She used to love yogurt, which fixes our no milk issue. Now, she poo-poos most yogurts. She liked oatmeal. Not anymore. Eggs. Gone. No apple juice. No cheese sticks. I can’t keep up, people!

She has opened up to a few things over the years. Popcorn shrimp, but only at certain places. Fish sticks. Hot dogs. And, I’m drawing a blank on anything else. Isn’t that sad?

Tonight we’d just come back from a marathon and nightmarish trip to the grocery store and I just didn’t have it in me to fight with her when she started in. I gave her yogurt and applesauce instead of the great chicken poppyseed casserole that everyone else loved.

And, then she rejected those. And, I’d had it. I told her she had better eat one or she was going to bed at 7:30.

She went to bed early tonight. And, as I laid down next to her, the darling talked me into reading her a book, then laying with her for a minute, all with hugs and kisses and even a few tears of explanation of how she just isn’t hungry mommy and she is very tired tonight.

I try to let it go. This food battle will either go away or we’ll learn to cope. But, what about the next battle?

What about when she brings a boy home that we don’t approve of, or she wants to stay out past 10 p.m. or drive her car to a nearby city to see a concert with friends?

What about if she chooses to not go to college, or wants to have a baby entirely to young?

This stubborn thing? It scares me to pieces. And, not just any kind of pieces. Tiny little pieces of vegetables and meat that she will turn her nose up at, most certainly…