Picky Eaters

I was raised on white bread and macaroni and cheese. Not because I wasn’t exposed to nutritious and diverse foods but because I was picky and I was the baby of the family.

It took me until college to figure out what incredible cooks my parents are. I still smart at the things I missed; “Don’t you remember when I used to make french onion soup,” or “cannoli, NY cheesecake, the time we got really into Chinese cooking?”

No, I was being picky and refusing to even smell the offending foods, sustaining on packaged cookies (my preference over mom’s homemade which might contain nuts) and plain spaghetti noodles (no sauce mom spent 8 hours simmering on the stove for me, thanks!)

By the ironic whims of the cosmos I have been spared the experience of a picky child. My youngest does a pretty good impression of one but she’s up against two youngest children who have her number.

So you'd think I'd have some empathy for the picky among us. Those poor little children who would rather go hungry than eat something green.

Apparently not.

No, I went so far as to make a kid cry.

Not on purpose.

It was a long time ago.

But I'll tell the story anyway.

Jessica was over with her kids and her niece who was probably around three at the time and she was very excited that I was making macaroni and cheese for lunch. When I set it down in front of her and she spied the pretty green peas mixed in her bowl she promptly broke down in tears.

I think I broke a little piece of her heart that day. 

Don't worry, other kids are learning, or trying, different ways to deal with me.

Case in point: my daughter had a friend over who had been subjected to my 'sneaky' ways before. This kid tried to tell me she was allergic to vegetables.
She told me point blank she couldn't have a smoothie because she was allergic to some types of vegetables.
(It wasn't a random kid off the street, we happen to be good friends with her family and I can assure you she is not allergic to vegetables or any other foods for that matter, so don't go all peanut dangers on me.)

I know there will be a lot of posts on picky eaters and that Jess and Bretta both struggle with the issue so I just wanted to give a little background on me so that when I end up sounding crass or unsympathetic you'll know that actually I am trying to help, it is just not my strong point.