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Parenting

18th Sep 2019

We are totally going to steal this dad’s trick for getting picky kids to eat

Trine Jensen-Burke

tricks for picky eaters

If you have ever found yourself trying to convince a child to eat something they insist they don’t want to eat, you will know just how sanity destroying this battle can be.

Many children go through phases of being super-picky with that they will taste and eat, and, unfortunately, for some, this phase never seems to end.

However, when this Reddit user recently posted about how freaking impossible his kids were making mealtimes in their house, we simply could not stop laughing at how brilliant his way of dealing with their moaning was.

This is what Reddit user BabyHooey wrote:

“There are literally no meals left that I can make without someone complaining,” he writes. “Spaghetti? I make my sauce with Italian sausage and one kid has decided she hates fennel. One kid has Celiac, which rules out wheat (obviously not her fault) so that makes it harder. One kid hates cheese, which rules out a lot of things. One kid hates chicken. We were safe for a while with tacos until one kid decided she was never eating tacos again.”

So, he did what was seemingly the last thing left to do: He retired from cooking.  Yup. This dad simply purchased groceries at the store, stocked the shelves at home, and told everyone they’re on their own for dinner.

How did the experiment go, you might wonder?

“For about two weeks, everyone lived off of sandwiches and cereal,” he writes. “At about that point, I started cooking for myself and my wife only, things that we like to eat and cook. Eventually, one kid said, “That smells really good, can I have some?” I said that I only made enough for the two of us, but if they’d like some of tomorrow’s dinner, let me know and I can make extra. I was expecting, “What’s tomorrow’s dinner?” But instead I got, “Yes, please, anything’s better than more sandwiches.” All of them eventually followed suit. I’m back to cooking for six, but I’m making whatever I want to make.

The dad-of-four goes on to explain that retirement was a success, and that the kids are more appreciative of the dinners he makes — and, if they don’t like what’s being served, they can always default back to Cheerios.

“But surprisingly, sandwiches and cereal are being chosen very rarely.”