Food Fights

"What's for dinner?"

It seems like such a harmless and non-confrontational question.

But I get very defensive when I hear it.

There's always something wrong with what's for dinner. You can't please everyone, and long ago I stopped trying. But in this house, those un-pleased feel that they need to express themselves with loud and angry screaming, crying, whining, and overall general complaining.

I have never prepared a second meal for any of my children, barring actual illness. You get what you get.

And yet, most nights, the complaining begins before they actually sit down. "I'm not eating THAT!" Nick hates raviolis, or anything with parmesan cheese. Nathan doesn't like tacos or potatos. Nothing can look gross, or be too spicy, or be too bland. It can't be the wrong color - no white pasta sauce. It can't be the wrong shape of pasta - only spaghetti noodles, no rotini or ziti. No soup, ever, unless it's alphabet soup. Nick will eat the beef out of beef stew, but nothing else, and no one else will touch it. Nathan refuses anything green, or potatoes that are not white, peeled, and mashed.

Andrew doesn't complain a lot, but he also doesn't eat very much. I think this is fine. I understand not liking something. We all have things we don't like. But this doesn't need to be shared over and over again during the meal.