Will has started this lovely habit of refusing to eat the meals I cook for dinner. He whines that he’s not hungry when he clearly is (he’s whiny, grumpy, etc when he’s hungry) and refuses to have even one bite unless its one of the meals he knows and loves. Growing up, making any kind of rude remark or comment about a meal was a huge no-no, so this new bevahior of William’s is really starting to get under my skin.
I’ve responded by telling him if he’s not going to eat the dinner I made for him, he can leave the kitchen. I feel a little bad doing it, but I refuse to make him something else to eat just because he doesn’t want to try the meal I made for the family. I really don’t want to get into the habit of substituting and letting the kids think I’m some kind of short order cook. I might let him have some bread and water, but it hasn’t come to that yet. Usually he just goes to bed without dinner.
Putting him to bed without dinner bothers me a little too, but I really don’t have any other kind of answer to this. I really can’t stand him making a fuss about food, especially because the food I cook is hardly adventurous (tonight was rice & beans, scary!). I hope this is just him testing the boundaries of acceptable behavior, testing me to see what I’ll let him get away with.
