What’s the lesson here? Send them to someone else’s house for lunch or dinner every now and then (when they are old enough, of course). Don’t make any special requests (other than allergies, of course) and see what happens. Maybe they’ll come home hungry, saying that they didn’t like dinner but maybe, just maybe they will have tried a new thing and liked it. Sometimes kids need to fly the nest a bit to experience something new!

-Isabelle

My first random musing is as follows. You know the saying - do what you love and it won’t feel like work. Well - even though we are working quite a lot I don’t feel like I am working. It is such a pleasure for me to meet new people, learn about their kids and families and try to help them in whatever small way we can.

However, the saying has many applications. Try this one on for size: If you make food that YOU love, it won’t feel like work to get your kids to eat it. Think back to a time when you really savored a meal. Then try to recreate that meal for the fam. . . within reason of course. I’ll bet that if the kids see you eating something that you really love - not a protein shake, or an egg white omlette or steamed salmon with veggies - but something really delicious - well, I’ll bet that they try it and probably like it. Maybe not the first time, maybe not every dish. But give it a go.

On a separate note, I highly recommend that you go out and get the book, Dinner with Dad by Cameron Stracher. It’s the story of a Westport, CT father who commits to being home for dinner 5 nights a week for an entire year. It’s a great read and very inspirational. I’ll discuss it further in a later post.