The other day I read a review by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s food writer, John Kessler, on the new cookbook by Jerry Seinfeld’s wife Jessica: “Deceptively Delicious.” I’ll summarize: Kessler didn’t like the idea of tricking kids into eating vegetables.  I think I agree with him. I’d rather TEACH my kids to at least tolerate most vegetables. You can’t really do that if the spinach is hidden (as puree) in brownies.  However, having principles and acting on them are not the same. The review reminded me of two recent conversations with Abby, our 5yo.  

With her daddy after dinner:

“How many pieces of candy can I have for dessert?” (It was right after Halloween, and she was still plowing through her candy bucket.) 

“One.”

“How ‘bout six?”

“Two.”

“Can I have four?”

“You can have three.”

“Okay.”

With me another day at lunch:

  “How many grapes do I need to eat?” (She hates most fruits; grapes are the only ones she’ll tolerate.)“All of them.”

“Awwww, how bout four?”

“You can eat six. That’s half.”

“But I really want to eat five.”

“Okay, I’ll let you eat only five.”  

See what we did there? We haggled. With a five-year-old. We were pretty proud of ourselves until we realized that those conversations lead to this one: 

“Don’t hide in the clothes racks like that! I didn’t know where you were.”

“But I knew where YOU were.”

“I was worried about you because it’s not safe for a little kid to be out alone in a public place.”

“Don’t worry, Mom, I didn’t get hurt.”

“No, I mean that some people aren’t nice, and those people could try to take you.”

“I didn’t see any bad people.”

“No – well – you see, bad people don’t necessarily look bad.”

“Well, nobody stole me.”

“But they COULD.”

“But they DIDN’T.” 

Now I get why “because I said so” is such a common response. Sometimes you just gotta hold your ground — even about grapes.