Eating Veg

No more chocolate! No more I say!

Oh, okay then....just a little more.......

I don't mean me by the way, I mean the daughter.  I swear that once this excess of chocolate eggs (and bunnies) is consumed then all chocolate, sweets and junk food will be relegated to a once-a-week treat.  Which somehow seems easier said than done as multiple grandparents and great grandparents like to 'treat' her (it can't be a treat if it's more than once a week surely?!) and at the moment I'm feeling too tired to argue.  But no more!  I shall by Super-Muumy The Strict, the foot shall go down, there will be spinach for breakfast and broccoli for dinner and sugar shall be banned! Oh yes!.......errmm.....

I need to do something though, I've become a tad lax in recent months with the family diet.  Not that I'd be able to persuade daughter to expand her taste for vegetables beyond the current bolognaise sauce (blended only, but I can get celery, mushrooms, lentils, peppers, carrots, onions ad carrots into that, most of which she wouldn't touch otherwise), raw carrots, tomatoes and cucumber (with the occasional small spoonful of peas....I say spoonful but it's usually 3 or 4, eaten under duress with a look of disgust on her face followed by dramatic gulping from her cup of water).  I'm relying on the theory that as she grows older she'll develop the taste for veg - husband wouldn't touch anything other than raw carrots and raw cauliflower as a child but eats pretty much anything now.  I wasn't quite so fussy but I definitely wasn't the lover of brussels sprouts that I am now (although you'd still be hard pushed to get me to eat broad beans....unless they're the roasted/fried kind you'd get in a little bowl as Tapas!).

Although I'm relying on my "she'll grow into it" theory I still sometimes wonder if there's a better way of getting her to eat veg - although definitely not the approach I remember my dad using on us as kids:

       My 4 year old brother: "I don't like sweetcorn!"

       My dad: "Yes you do!"

       Brother: "No I don't!"

       Dad: "You do and you're not leaving that table until you eat it!"

Cue three hour standoff which my brother eventually won, proving once and for all that small children are the most stubborn creatures on the planet.  

Actually, I may be exaggerating on the length of time he sat at the table staring at a plate of cold sweetcorn (I'm only three years older so the concept of time is different looking back) but knowing my dad, and knowing my brother, I suspect I'm not far off.

I think if I tried that approach with daughter the results would be similar - she also has a wonderful stubborn streak in her,  It doesn't always make for the easiest time but I hope it'll stand her in good stead as she grows to adulthood.

Funny, when I started writing this blog entry it was going to be about something else entirely.  Mostly revolving around meeting up with a friend who's about to head to Nepal for a couple of months trekking and mountain climbing.  I guess the eating-veg battle is far more exciting than discussions on tackling Anapurna and the risks of meeting a Yak Train on a mountain path............maybe.