Me: "Who has the best seat in the house, me or daddy?"

Adam: "Well, Daddy's is nice, but yours is best. Your's is squishier."

Thursday, October 21, 2010

How to get your kids to eat dinner



Two nights ago the kids were unanimously grossed-out by the dinner they were served. They whined, they moaned, they threatened to puke. I grew up in an Eat-it-or-else house so I stink at dealing with food strikes. Guy was handling it all very well, though. First he began complimenting them on their awesome "Yuck" faces. Then he made it a competition to see who could make the most disgusted, obnoxious, completely repulsed face after each bite. The winner, he promised, would get "The biggest bowl of ice cream".
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Ethan won, hands down. And after dinner was over (and eaten, I might add) he was handed, with great pomp and circumstance, the biggest bowl we own, with two scoops of ice cream in it... two scoops, just like everybody else.
The face he made next was classic. (see photo :)
*****
I gotta say I have been pretty impressed with the boy lately. He has pulled his grades up with great determination. He takes care of collecting cans each month for the scout's ongoing fundraiser, never complaining about riding his bike with huge bags of cans dangling from both hands, or about standing in line with the local hobos and wine-os to cash them in. He has been working out, eating well, taking care of his scout and church responsibilities, all without being prodded.
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But what impressed me most happened a few nights ago. He came out of his room after having gone off to bed, and handed me a book-on-CD he had recently checked out from the library. "Here Mom," he said, "This book is really inappropriate. It has a lot of swearing in it, and I shouldn't be listening to it." His voice sounded almost reverent. No, not reverent, self-respecting (is that a word?).
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What a cool kid.

2 comments:

julean said...

That is so great, Laine. All the hard work is paying off. I'm so glad that he's doing well... and especially doing what's right.

Ruth said...

Could a mama be any prouder?? You hve sweet wonderful children Laine.