They get choices at school, so they are picking stuff they like. They are good about eating veggies anyway. The 6-yr-old was told that macaroni salad was a veggie, and she told them in no uncertain terms that it was NOT and they went and got her something else. Didn't hurt that she detests macaroni salad but I was glad that she stuck to her guns. There has been a time or two that she said they didn't have a fruit opton and we let that go. But they know we are serious about this.

Yep, I could have written the same thing! We had to sit at the table until our plate was clean (even stuff like blood pudding - who makes their kid eat blood pudding?? My parents, that's who!). Then, dessert every single day - homemade baked things or pudding with whipped cream, etc. When I moved out and could have what I wanted for dinner I ate junk and plenty of it.

Now I don't make my kids clean their plates and we only have any kind of dessert when we're celebrating a birthday and have cake later in the evening. My Mom still can't wrap her mind around no dessert after dinner, like it's a crime not to have it or something

My MIL (may she rest in peace) was one of those rare women who could MAKE dessert and not EAT dessert. A different dessert every night (and sometimes way more than one; if there were 3 men at the dinner table, each with a different favorite pie, there were 3 pies.)

One of the family stories is how she would, once during each of our visits with the family, stand there and say, "I'm sorry, there's nothing for dessert tonight. Of course, we do have the pies from last night, and the chocolate cake from the night before, and there are fresh baked cookies in the jar, and we have vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry ice cream, and there's a whipped-cream-and-chocolate-wafer-cookie dessert in the freezer which would only take a little time to thaw…but we don't have any dessert." (And she meant it, too!)

Gotta love her--and we did (and do.) It's just that for Eula, food definitely equalled love. She was never happier than when she was feeding someone. And she never weighed more than 100 pounds. Sigh.

Jude

Yup, this is how I was raised too, and while I'd love to lose 10 pounds, I've never really had a weight problem.

And as a kid, I can tell you, I never felt deprived not having sugar cereals. I think I tasted them when I was 10 and I thought they were disgusting compared to Cheerios. I certainly wasn't raised on a whole foods diet, but my mom would not let us eat crap and found good ways of making healthy food enjoyable to kids

that's MY Mom you're describing, Jude

If you have a headache? You need to eat

If you're tired? You need to eat

If you have a sore stomach? You need to eat

If you haven't eaten in front of her in the last 5 minutes? You need to eat God bless her

My kids, btw, LOVE going to Grandma's house

My kids--ALL the grandkids--loved going to Grandma & Grandpa's house. For food, for laughter, for love--and for 9 kids lined up on the living room floor in sleeping bags, all praying and then giggling and whispering until, one by one, they fell asleep. AND for singing around the piano. And for the playhouse out back, which was originally built for my husband and his younger sibs.

My MIL was delighted with my two, though--of all the grandkids, they were the ONLY ones who would eat anything and everything. The others were (and are) "picky eaters"--one won't eat anything green, another doesn't like eggs, etc. Mine were always given one teaspoonful of whatever I made for their first serving (you don't have to eat MORE of anything, but you do have to eat THAT MUCH to try it)--and they usually decided that it tasted pretty good. Eula used to talk about the time my DS, who was maybe 18 months old at the time, kept coming back to the marinated mushrooms!

She's been gone for 12 years now, and I still miss her.

Hi - had to share my experience with "school" food here. First two years of school my dd took her lunch because the school didn't offer a hot lunch program (new charter school). However, she ate snack there. It was those "economical" snacks that we discovered she has an allergy to corn. Give her hf corn syrup, dextrose, corn meal, etc. and she gets a horrible rash and migraines.

This year she is attending a school that has a hot lunch program so...because it was new...she decided to try it. Results? Horrible rashes, migraines, upset stomach, etc. She takes her lunch AND snacks every day now. It's just not worth it.

She has always eaten pretty healthy but once she started school and started eating more junk, her allergies reared their ugly head. In the long run, she is better off not having that junk, even once in a while but packing lunches and snacks wears Mom out.