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Reply to "If you're a family who expects your kids to eat what's put in front of them, do you make exceptions?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Especially for holidays?

I have a relative whose parenting around food is very different from my own.  I'm not saying either of us is right or wrong, but I'm hoping to get a better sense of what they're thinking so I can propose some compromises.[/quote]

If I introduce a new dish/food, they had to takea bite and it could be nothing more than a dot.  If they likef it then I let them serve themselves but they had to eat what they put on their plate and they learned to take small amounts but they could have seconds.  I never make them eat anything they don't like.  I told them that when I was little that I hated cooked carrots and wouldn't eat carrot cake because it had cooked carrots but one time I was invited to a friend's house for her birthday dinner and they served carrot cake.  I asked for a tiny slice because I just knew I would gag on the cooked carrots.  Imagine my delightful surprise when I took that tiny first bite of carrot cake!  They love the story and "remember the carrot cake" and will try everything.  I also never withheld desert.  I have three, two grown and one is 20 and a junior in college and I never had a picky eater.

I just never made a big deal about food.

[/quote]

OP here,

So, I think that's pretty similar to how they do things, that they have to "try" everything.

And that makes sense to me, in the context of their home, even if it's now how I do things.

But we are a big family with lots of people who cook, and so we're talking about a meal that might have 20 dishes, a lot of the unfamiliar to the kids.  I totally get that a kid who prefers familiar isn't going to want to taste 15 new foods.  I just feel like the obvious solution is for either their parents to say "Oh, that rule doesn't apply on Christmas" or to say "I'm going to pick 2 foods for you to taste".

I like the idea of maybe switching to more buffet.  We are typically a family that passes dishes around at the table.  Perhaps if mom is plating her own kids food she'll be comfortable with the idea that they just have to taste what's on their plate.  [/quote]

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