No one ever said that parenting was going to be easy. In fact, it is quite the opposite and probably one of the hardest challenges you will face in life, as has been the case in my own experiences a mother.
And yet, being a parent is the best, most rewarding job in the world. I would never change a thing about having my kids... and I had them relatively young. Whether that makes the experience harder, I do not know. There is a list of arguments for and against the idea, which I will not get into right now.
What I am trying to say is, no matter how hard it seems at the time; it is worth every hair-pulling, brow tensing second. There will always be a silver lining, and at the end of the day, when your little one looks up to you with the utmost love... I mean, I cannot express to you, but it is absolutely, without a doubt, the most life defining moment, ever!
Raising your children the right way was always going to be a challenge, things wouldn't be as exciting if they weren't. We knew this when we had them. What we didn't know was how frustrating this brilliant job could be at times. But I will admit that there are those few instances where I am absolutely stumped as to why I cannot solve a problem right away. And I have hit a stumbling block.
Over the past six months, my current (and ongoing) parental challenge has been getting my eldest daughter to actually eat a meal in decent time. All solutions have escaped me and despite my best efforts I can't help but feel as though every attempt to acheive a simple normal eating pattern has outright failed because while the first few tries have appeared to be successful, it eventually dwindles into an alltogether stressful situation where all parties are just, miserable.
It is the most disheartening moment, when all you want is for your child to eat. It really is the hardest thing to do; to watch your child unable to eat a pefectly healthy and wholesome (kiddy-sized) plate of food, which was so lovingly put together.
Surely, at three and a half years of age, it should not take upto two whole hours, to just get her relatively through her meal. All the while she is constantly distracted by absolutely nothing. Twiddling with the fork, staring off into space, enticing her sister into playing beneath the table, which results in kicking (we absolutely put a stop to this, the moment it happens - got to love those timeouts), flicking the food about her plate as if she was simply bored.
We have tried and tested the 'Supernanny' approach of with-holding food until the child realises that they will not get anything else except what they were served. But then that was never Eden's issue in the first place, she wasn't being picky and demanding fries or cookies or any of that junk because she has never eaten these things (we are not a junk food house-hold). So, that was a fail and my kid just went hungry. The next day, I realised she was all to happy to have gone hungry the night before. Personally, I am not in agreeance with letting my child starve...
So where to go from there? Well, we tried 'Timeout! If you do not eat', which have worked for the most part, but it doesn't solve the timing issue, she is still slow as poke! Having to administer Timeouts just prolong the process. We decided to incorporate into this, the 'smaller portion/serving,' which worked for the first few days, as she began eating quicker. But, again she started to fall back into her old ways and once again, that look of boredom and utter lack of concentration.
We have even tried to just talk casually (around the dinner table) about the day and things we might have planned in the week, but that is the worst approach so far as she takes it as an invitation to chatter non-stop and completly give up on her food. I really cannot recall all the other little alterations and like I said - stumbling block.
Nevertheless, I am determined to try and figure this out. And you know what, I am sure that there are some days where the kid will just not eat and we, as parents, are always going to throw a fit about it and go into a frenzy of worry and panic. Fact of the matter is, Eden is a happy girl; she is tall and lean (which is to say, not too skinny), with a tremendous amount of energy that is shockingly overpowering. We really cannot keep up with her. So until there are signs that your child is poorly, is not themselves, are weak and of a somewhat lifeless nature, then you really should not worry too much.
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| The Troublesome Eater: Boredom at the dinner table, anyone? |
