Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Works for Me Wednesday - peace at the dinner table... FINALLY

Here's a breakdown of how dinner used to go at our house:


I would make dinner and serve everyone's plates in the kitchen.  If it was something the kids like (macaroni and cheese or pizza), we'd have a happy meal time.

However, the 99% of the time that I got all crazy and made something like chicken and yellow rice with lima beans... look out!  

Oh, the tears and angst.

Because I'm so mean.

* I should note here that if I believed in karma, this would absolutely qualify since I was an impossible eater when I was a child.  At the very least it is payback.  And my mother is so pleased.

PB and I had a rule that you don't get a bedtime snack unless you eat a "decent" dinner. Typically decent was defined by a sliding scale based on how much we liked the dinner ourselves.

So not a lot of consistency.

And not a lot of peace.

Enter the spoons.
The rules are simple.  Everyone begins with an empty plate, but you must serve yourself a portion of each item on the table.  The difference is that you get to pick the serving spoon.  It's absolutely okay to choose the small spoon, but you must eat at least that much if you want a bedtime snack.

This has been working at our house for a couple of months now.  The kids are trying foods that they used to give me a hard time about and even (occasionally) asking for seconds.

The best part?

No more tears.

And the kids have stopped crying too:)

Works for Me Wednesday has moved.  You can now find it hosted by Kristin at We are THAT Family.

7 comments:

Tiffany said...

Great idea! We do something similar in that I give the kids a tiny portion of everything and they have to eat that, they can then have seconds or be done. There is never any complaints now and they are developing a taste for things they originally said they didn't like. I love the big and little spoon--very smart!

Andrea said...

That's a great idea! I may have to try that.

Luke Holzmann said...

Definitely keeping that one in my "back pocket" for meal times. Looks like a great tool.

Thanks for sharing!

~Luke

Eos Mom said...

Genius! I amy have to steal that idea, thanks!

Lisa Hellier said...

I agree with all of the above--a really great idea. Thanks for sharing.

Unknown said...

I am sooo excited to try this!!!

Cheryl said...

this is SO cool!! GREAT idea for sure!

 
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