The Carnivore

I suppose my son thinks that he is part dinosaur or something. I can understand not wanting to eat zucchini or....the dreaded carrots, but he eats all the meat off of his plate and leaves his macaroni and cheese tonight. (I'm not even going to bother with the zucchini - it's a lost cause). And, tonight was fish sticks! Then again, slather some ketchup on any meat and it's instantly a fave. He even ate the one extra fish stick from my plate. You'd think I was trying to poison him by shoveling one last forkful of mac & cheese into his mouth. He sits there head in his hands with his cheeks puffed out like a little chipmunk. Just waiting me out. Hoping that I will just say, "Fine, just spit it out in the trash."

I turn the TV off. No more Spongebob. He just eyes me, as if saying, "So, what's it gonna be, mommy? You tough enough to wait me out, or can we just call this a draw and I spit it out?" So, I pull out my trump card - the time out chair. "Gavin," I say in one final warning, "if you don't swallow that food in the next two minutes, you're gonna sit in the time out chair until you do." Two minutes pass. Guess what's still in his mouth. "Did you swallow it?" He shakes his head. "Then you go in time out." "OK.", as nonchalantly as I asked him to go take a walk with me. I put him in the chair and tell him he's not budging until he swallows that food. Who magically appears five minutes later with a mouth wide open, like I'm doing a security check of orifices on where to hide food? Yep. Gavin.

I don't get it he'll scarf down the meat in like 5 minutes, but let the mac & cheese sit in his mouth for half an hour then swallow it within 5 minutes of the time-out chair. Why do I even need to get to the time-out chair - isn't the threat enough? I told him, "Don't you think that would have been easier if you just swallowed that one bite for mommy right away? You coulda watched some Spongebob before bed, but no!"

Maybe if I breaded the mac & cheese or the zucchini, he'll eat it. After all it resembles his most beloved food - the chicken nugget.