The Battle with Food.

I am pretty sure I am a different mother then what I thought I would be. I am not saying I am a bad mother or the best mother, just different than what the image in my head was. I thought I would never be a short order cook. I was sure that since I liked healthy food that my children would embrace vegetables. And I knew we would always sit at the table as a family and my kids would have to ask to be excused. Well as most of my fairy tale thoughts about having a family have been shattered, these too do not ring true.

Jackson is my battle child. He fights me with everything even if he doesn't know what he is fighting about. He is the boss and I am the child. Or so that is how he wants it to be. Food is a difficult subject with most of my friends who have toddlers. We discuss this subject practically everyday. It's FRUSTRATING.  Jackson does not want to eat anything unless it was his idea. For breakfast I'll ask him what he wants (maybe this is where I'm going wrong at) and we run through the list. Eggs, waffle, cereal, bran muffin... And we run through them again and again until either I just make scrambled eggs or he tells me. Lunch is usually a disaster. I can't remember the last time we ate at the table for lunch. I usually make him a sandwich and he eats and watches TV, yet another thing I swore I would never do.   And for dinner I am just begging him to eat. For weeks he would come up to the table and push his plate away and scream  NOOOO, or he will just cover his mouth with not one, but both hands like I am trying to force feed him poison. He refuses to eat anything we eat. Not chicken, steak, pork, potatoes, rice, pasta, vegetables...nothing. He says it is "nucky".  He also in the last 6-8 months has decided that he does not like pizza. That is a sin if you ask me.  He eats chicken nuggets, peanut butter sandwich and an occasional hot dog but that usually gets the hand over mouth treatment. He refuses to eat any sauce with pasta (so there rules out the old blend vegetables in with sauce trick). And recently he refuses to eat macaroni and cheese. I'm out of options and sanity. He usually goes to bed without supper. I feel bad about this but I don't know what else to do.

This battle with food is so wasteful. I throw away SO MUCH. Not to mention little Brecken who also seems to be not liking things either. It drives me so crazy when I spend so much time making food for my boys for them to turn around and not eat it. Especially when Mr. Boss man told me that is what he wanted. I'm actually laughing now as I'm reading that last sentence because I'm sure my mom felt the same way when she would go and make us meatloaf and I refused to eat it or covered it with ketchup to disguise the bad taste in my mouth. Kids are wonderful aren't they?

I have one thing going for me though and it is Juice Plus. My friend Marie introduced me to Juice Plus a year ago and sent me some extra gummies she gave to her little boy. Jack LOVED them. And yes I tasted them too, and they are quite tasty.  And lucky for me now my Pilate's instructor is a sales rep for Juice Plus, and she is so sweet that she will purchase them for me so I don't have to sign a continuous contract. I am so thankful for her because I don't like to sign up for anything when they are taking money out of your account every month. So at least I know Jack is getting all the benefits from fruits and vegetables with these vitamins, and at least I can rest easier while we struggle through this battle. I'm hoping one day he will stop telling me that everything is "nucky" and will become a better eater.