Treet

I hate feeding my children.

I know. That's not nice at all.

But it's true.

I hate having to figure out what's for dinner each night.

I hate fighting with Alyssa every single night about eating even three bites of her vegetable.

I may as well not dirty a plate for Olivia, who tends to push her own food aside and sidles up to me with her fork/spoon in hand and partakes of the food on my plate. It doesn't matter if she has the exact same food on her own plate, mine is always better as far as she's concerned.

The feeding of my children has been a source of stress ever since Alyssa's birth.

She couldn't nurse and this caused me so much guilt and stress. I so wanted to be able to breast feed and when it didn't work out I was so sad. I ended up pumping for her for fourteen weeks, but that also caused much stress and frustration.

I'd hoped for a different feeding relationship with Olivia but again, no go on the nursing. And so the pumping resumed.

Ohhh, how I loathe the breast pump.

But you'd think that feeding would be easier these days.

With a seven year old and three year old, you just put the food in front of them and they eat it, right?

Not so much.

At least not with my children.

I'm on the verge of banning the word 'gross' from the kitchen.

If I hear Alyssa whine, "But it's gross!" Or, "It looks so gross." I might lose my mind.

I'm not really all that strict about food.

When they're hungry, I feed them. But I do want them to eat more than potato chips and marshmallows.

I know. I'm not always the best example. But I try to eat foods that aren't beige every so often just to set a better example.

Hey, I had a salad yesterday!

Of course, Alyssa was in school and Olivia elected not to get herself a fork to help me with that meal.

I'm trying. I am.

But it's always such a challenge to find nutritious meals they'll actually eat. I hate that they already eat so much processed food. Quite honestly, I really, truly hate that my stepdad feeds Spam and Treet to Olivia. Like she needs any more preservatives in her 30 pound body. Ick!!

I need to start slow and try to change their (and my) diet over the next few months.

Wish me luck as I slowly introduce color into their diets. And yeah, we're definitely making 'gross' not allowed in the kitchen/at the table.
We're adjusting, even if slowly.