Children know how to manipulate, plain and simple. Busy parents who are run off their feet tend to cave into their children's demands to get through their day. I was that Mom! I admit it! We should have our own support group, Busy Mom's Anonymous! I worked all day at the office, drove home to starving children, had to get them to all their activities, then bathed and into bed and start getting ready for the next morning with lunches, laundry and tried to fit in a couple of hours of sleep. Of course the children got their way once in a while and manipulated me and after they turned 20 they admitted to a lot of things I still wish I didn't know about. Ugh, teenagers. A whole new story.

Anyway, I don't like it when people judge others so when I have a picky eater in the daycare I talk to the parents daily about the food issues. I had a little boy for 3 1/2 years who wouldn't eat food that touches like a casserole or meatloaf. I have a little girl who only eats about 5 veggies but I keep trying things and the Mom and I talk about it often, she's trying too. I have a new baby who doesn't like fruit, but last week she eventually ate some apples, then some pears, then some bananas and her Mom was flabbergasted because it's the first fruit she's eaten in her life!

So I tailor my menu to the foods I know the children like as much as possible but it's going to be all home made, nutritious food with all the food groups involved every single day and they are going to get used to eating what I put in front of them without question. I give them small amounts and then they can have more if they want more and I'm not scraping a whole plateful of food into the garbage, just 1/2 a plateful.

This can turn into a real problem, been there done that, even with my own children. I learned a trick of pulverizing veggies and hiding them into meatloaf and mac n cheese and pasta dishes, etc. I don't ever cave into my dckids, but I can completely understand why the parents cave in.