No Dinner For You!

I sent my son to bed without dinner tonight. I know that sounds awful. But here is the situation. He has become such a finicky eater. I know it’s normal for his age, but it frightens me. I am scared to cater to his pickiness too much. I do not want to be the mom that has to cook a separate meal for her child every night. I think that is ridiculous.

Foods that my son has previously enjoyed, he refuses to even look at. There are a handful of foods (not the healthiest) that he wants to eat all the time. Not gonna fly with me. So, tonight we had meatloaf, veggie pancakes, roasted potatoes, corn and salad. There are plenty of choices for him among those things to choose from. He refused every single one.

All day long he tells me he is hungry, yet come dinner time, he doesn’t want to eat….or he wants “something else”. Then he wants dessert. WHAT?!? Are you kidding? You don’t get to eat dessert without dinner. Heck, we don’t even have dessert half the time, it’s not like it’s a normal part of our evenings. So, I offered him his food, let him know that it was available for as long as he’d like it there, but that was all he was getting. If he was hungry enough, he’d eat it, right? Well, he didn’t.

Needless to say, my son went to bed without dinner tonight. This was the first time this has happened. I’m not worried though. He didn’t complain that he was hungry. We went about our normal nighttime routine and he went to bed as usual. I expect he’ll want a big breakfast in the a.m. though.