I Scream, You Scream.... We All Scream!

Sooooooo suppertime around here for the last few weeks (months? years?) has been dreadful. Seriously. We cringe when it's time to call them to the table, then we brace ourselves for the fallout. They hate supper. I'm not sure if it's the idea of it, the content, the terrible inconvenience of it or what but we're almost to the point that we just might not serve it to them any more. We could get our plates ready, eat in peace, enjoy the meal and just leave them to play while we enjoy our repast. Honey hates just about anything we can put on her plate. Now sometimes we like different things. I know not everyone likes our Thai Chicken pizza (peanut butter & soy sauce, bean sprouts, broccoli toppings etc) but I'm talking about chicken and mashed potatoes here. Lovey just looks at her plate and starts to cry some nights. At times, they refuse to even come into the kitchen. They just yell "I hate supper and I'm NOT eating it". That's our starting point. Then we give them 3 warnings & then a time out if they dont' come in. Sometimes they get a couple of time outs before they'll get in their chair. Sweetie doesn't seem to balk as much as the other two but she tends to be hungrier and actually likes more foods than they do so is more likely to eat something. I've tried making buttery things, cheesy things, fun shaped noodles etc. Lovey can barely choke down ¼ of a SLICE of carrot. We don't want to force them to clean their plates (not sure we even could!) but I'd like them to have a bite of everything. They're allowed to have dips, sauces, ketchup.. whatever, if they'll just eat a freakin' bite!!!!! Anyway, last night we told them that if they did a good job on their supper, we'd go out for icecream afterwards. Lovey almost didn't get to go. She just kept saying "but I HATE venchtables!!!!!!" With much coaching, prodding, cajoling, cheerleading (backflips no less!) and a generous helping of ketchup, I got her to have a few bites of rice, some bbq chicken and that one slice of carrot. I have to put on a circus x 3 to get a decent meal down????? Anyway, last night was a success so they got the treat as promised.

We loaded up & hit the icecream stand and they were in heaven!

Chocoloate Chip Cookie Dough for these two.

and bubble gum for Sweetie.
orange pineapple for Daddy!

I'll have to work out some kind of reward chart/system and see if we can make mealtime a little smoother because this incentive seemed to do the trick!