Picky Eaters?

It's 6 in the evening, you've worked all day to come home and cook a great meal, only to have one, two or all of your little ones turn their nose and not want any part of what you just spent the last 45 minutes preparing.  Sound familiar?

This used to be me back when my girls were under the age of 6. 

I looked in books and magazines, family and friends for a solution for this dreaded problem.  Telling the girls they couldn't get up from the table until their plate was cleaned never worked, we always told ourselves we refused to negotiate with 5 year olds.  That just wasn't an option.  And yelling, well yelling just never worked, and would create more problems than it would solve, not to mention the headache I would give myself.   

After going through the same scenario I just wrote about, several weeks over.  I was sick and tired of this particular battle.  Everything I read about or heard I tried, nothing seemed to work.  That was until I had the proverbial light bulb moment, or as some call it the "Ah-Ha" moment. 

I don't know why, but I have always brought my girls grocery shopping with me, maybe I'm, a glutten for punishment, I don't know, I have just always done this.  My girls would walk through the aisles and ask for this, and ask for that, and I would get about 40% of what they asked for. 

That light bulb moment came one night during slumber.  I woke to jot it down so I would remember.  The next day I would test my new found theory out. 

Morning arrived, and I told the girls they were coming with me to go grocery shopping.  We arrived in the parking lot, I unbuckled the girls and made them both pay attention to what I was about to say. 

"Girls, we're going to do something a little different this time.  You are not going to ask for anything in this store."  By this time, both girls had a very perplexing look. 

"You both can pick out 5 items, any 5 items you want".....

Perplexity has now turned into exhilaration, for a split second.

"There's a catch girls."

"Those 5 items HAVE to picked out in the first aisle, which we will be going to last this time."

Now, I know for a fact you ALL know what aisle I am talking about. 

Yep, the fruit and vegetable aisle. 

Each girl picked out their own 5 items, we had apples, bananas, brussel sprouts, mangoes, green beans and broccoli. 

In the next several days...

Every.  Single.  Piece.  Eaten.

Without a single argument. 

What did I learn from this?  Kids of any age just want to be included in household decisions, both big and small.