As a parent, I realize I am supposed to train, discipline, and teach my child. Some days I feel like he is teaching me much more than I am teaching him. The most important thing I have learned is that I don't know as much as I thought I knew! And just when I think I have it figured out, I need to think again! I have also learned to have much more grace and compassion for other parents and not be so quick to judge their parenting skills. For example, my personal experience has taught me that I should no longer assume that a parent is allowing their child to be a picky eater and that it is a high possibility that the parent has exhausted the advice of books, other moms, and the pediatrician in attempts to get their child to eat something besides yogert, string cheese, and fish sticks (Mason's personal favorites - most of the time or when he will actually eat).If you haven't heard our story, you have probably just figured out that our Mason is a very selective eater and has quite a sensitive palette. That being said, I have learned that it is okay if he sits down to a meal and later gets up without having eaten anything. I have also learned that it is not necessary for me to buy Happy Meals, kids meals, or chicken nuggets. For now we can still go out to eat without the extra expense of a meal for Mason!
Another thing I have learned is that not all kids like macaroni and cheese. Last night we sat down to a meal of spaghetti. I put some spaghetti noodles in Mason's bowl and set the bowl on his high chair. I mostly did this "just for kicks." Mason has never eaten pasta noodles of any kind. I didn't expect him to eat them this time either, but I thought I'd try again anyway. His very first reaction was to take the bowl of noodles and dump them out on his head. I know I wasn't supposed to do this, but I laughed. And then I took a picture. It was only after that that I let him know he wasn't supposed to do that with his food.
He sat in his high chair and played with the noodles for awhile. He didn't put them on his head anymore, but he didn't throw them on the floor either (that's another thing we've been working on). And then he finally started eating them. I had not cut them up into bite-size pieces because I hadn't expected him to eat them to begin with, but he managed to figure it out anyway.
