"She frequently complains of hunger during the day."
Suddenly, I know exactly what the teacher sees when she sees me: Joan Crawford.
Crap. Shoulder pads do nothing for me.
I have long believed that there are three ways to get a child to eat something:
- frost it
- put it in a bag with a toy
- serve it at the end of a toothpick
Now, I'm a Good Parent, and Good Parents always pack nutritious foods that kids love, in ample quantities, for lunch. So you can imagine how surprised I was to learn that the child who was returning home daily with a half-full lunchbox was complaining of starvation to ... a kind woman who distributes snacks to children.
Clearly, there are many solutions to the problem I now face, but I think the key here is to recognize the newly discovered fourth way to get a child to eat:
- have someone who isn't the child's mother serve it to them.
The goldfish crackers are - what, orange-er? - in the other lunchbox.
This idea that food given by another other than your mother is the food you eat- this is 100% true. My daughter eats the daycare lady out of house and home, but me, she eats a cracker or two for me. Crazy!
ReplyDeleteGood luck with that. I wish I had some tips but I'm not a parent. I have enough trouble getting my cat to eat!
ReplyDeleteFrom a Winnicottian perspective, I believe that most children secretly believe their parents are out to poison them.
ReplyDelete