Well, we all survived our first hunger strike – a bit battered and bruised – but all still standing and still liking each other, which is a good thing.  You see, I clearly have a problem with food.  I like food.  If I don’t eat on a certain schedule, I get irritable.  Joel learned early on in our relationship to carry snacks with him in order to appease me.  Pregnancy reduced the need for the snacks, and I am now able to go much longer without food.  Funny that.

Anyway, I feel that the boys should eat healthy meals and should eat at every meal.  It drives me nuts that when I work hard to make a good, decent meal and call out “Dinner”, and no one shows up.  Even with warnings that dinner is coming, it can sometime be a struggle to get people to the table.  This is unacceptable.  Also, the boys don’t eat my cooking.  They look at something and say “no”.  Last night, I made a very benign pasta broccoli cheese casserole.  They like all three ingredients.  Mixing them together however drove them to a hunger strike.

Joel and I have decided I am not a short order cook.  Last night was the last straw.  You will eat the casserole or not have dinner.  They decided to skip dinner in favor of Legos.  We told them it would be waiting for them the next morning (yes, Laura, we’re trying to channel Cathy here.  Or was it Karl?).  The next morning, we put out their dinner.  The response “I’m not eating that – Ever.”  OK then, be hungry.  Didn’t phase them.  Nicholas and Dexter played happily with Legos all morning long.  Lunch time rolled around.  I’ll do my best at quoting Nicky “I’m hungry Mommy, but not for that. I’m never going to eat that.”  Boy, are they stubborn.  I was ready to crack but Joel reminded me over and over again, it is not our problem.  They need to learn.  Either they could learn that we mean what we say and crying won’t get them out of consequences, or that if they’re pathetic and despondent enough we’ll eventually do anything to help them recover.  It’s our job to put good food in front of them, it’s not our job to get it into them.  We provided them good food.  It was their choice not to eat.

Dexter broke first around 2:30pm.  He ate half of the casserole, then decided he was not that hungry after-all and left the table (sort of – he still wanted Cinnamon Life, but Joel wasn’t in the mood for half measures).  Nicholas turned into a little monster around 3:30pm.  This was his first experience with real hunger but refused to recognize it as such and thought he was sick.  He started to cry.  My heart was breaking.  Joel was out shopping and I needed a pep talk.  He authorized TV as an enticement and red sauce.  I tried.  At 4pm, Nicky finally decided that with red sauce, sprinkles, and parmesan, he would eat most of his pasta.  Dexter had already come back and finished his pasta.

In the end, I’m not sure who won.  As soon as Nicholas ate enough to get me to say he could eat something else, he dropped his “I’m dying” act and was all smiles as he chowed down on lots of other food.

Why do I care so much about food?????

One last note – after dinner, we were still sitting at the table but Nicholas had started to walk off.  He saw the plug to the popcorn maker, and did what all little boys do – grabbed it and looked for something to stick it in.  Joel noticed and called his name twice, before Nic responded.  Nic didn’t like being told not to touch it and got all pouty, and asked why he couldn’t plug it in.  Joel explained the potential joys of electrocution, and Nic seemed to accept this, dropped the plug and walked off to play.  Dex nodded sagely and declared, “Nicky learned a lesson.”