If you’re a parent, you understand that ensuring your toddler eats a proper dinner can feel like a monumental task. My little one, for instance, seems to embark on a hunger strike every afternoon around 3 PM and doesn’t eat again until morning. Despite my mother’s well-meaning advice to simply serve a meal my child enjoys, I remind her of my sister’s nightly ritual of falling asleep at the dinner table instead of eating. Memory can be quite selective, can’t it?
Here’s a guide on how to navigate dinner with your toddler in 18 easy steps:
- Prepare a meal that you know your toddler will accept; think buttered noodles (without sauce), chicken (that mustn’t resemble chicken!), and peas (not mingling with anything else on the plate!).
- For reasons you can’t quite fathom, you decide to add a smidgen of salad to their plate, hoping to expand their culinary horizons.
- Present the meal to your toddler and instantly regret the salad addition, praying to the trifecta of toddler deities—Dora, Daniel Tiger, and Elmo—that they overlook it. Please, just ignore the salad, little one!
- Of course, they spot the salad.
- Cue the chaos! You now face two options: A) Cut your losses and enjoy what’s left of your sanity, or B) Stand firm and demonstrate that saying “Yucky! Gross! Call Grandma!” is not acceptable behavior at dinnertime.
- Choosing the latter for the sake of your audience, you brace yourself for the impending lessons on parenting. After all, abandoning ship during this pivotal moment could lead to your child growing up to be a menace to society.
- So, you hold your ground, which results in your toddler sitting in timeout about 20 times over the next 45 minutes. Perfect timing, as the rest of the family is ready to eat!
- You attempt to enjoy your meal while hearing the heartbreaking sobs that are both painful and oddly satisfying, as you cling to the hope that they might learn something.
- A feeling of déjà vu washes over you; you find yourself saying this every night.
- Meanwhile, the rest of the family finishes dinner, tidies up, does some laundry, and indulges in some leisure time.
- Just when you think it’s over, your toddler declares they’re full and suddenly wants dessert—immediately. How adorable!
- You glance at their plate, which is still full; they’ve consumed approximately zero bites of food.
- You say, “You need to eat three bites and try your salad before dessert.” Sometimes you wonder why these words come out of your mouth, as if your mother is speaking through you.
- Not understanding numbers, your toddler retorts, “No, five bites!”
- Your older child begins to explain, “But, you know, five is more than…” but you give them a look that says, “Think carefully about your next words; the iPad is on the line.”
- The family carefully avoids eye contact with the toddler, who, much like a timid giraffe, refuses to eat while being observed.
- Miraculously, your toddler manages to eat five bites (and even sample the salad!) all by themselves, three hours after the rest of the family has finished dinner.
- And then, they may just earn some dessert, because you remember that you included oatmeal in that cookie, and the calories might keep them going for another day.
For more practical insights, check out our other post about at-home insemination kits and learn stress-reduction techniques from this expert on easing tension. For those considering pregnancy options, this resource on IVF is also invaluable.
In summary, feeding a toddler dinner can be a blend of chaos and determination, but with patience and persistence, it can lead to successful mealtime moments—albeit on their own terms.