Thursday, June 26, 2014

Mommy Martyr Moment: Will keeps eating my soup!

So I made a big pot of soup for my diet. Huge pot, big Ziplocs in the freezer and a big Tupperware in the fridge. Soup works for me - it's filling, and most of all it's QUICK. Ain't nobody got time for chopping salads.

I love this soup. Ground venison, cabbage, kale, carrots, onion, celery, lima beans, white beans, kidney beans, cauliflower, tomatoes, garlic, and homemade stock. I don't know if it's the beans or what, but it's really filling and SUPER GOOD.

So a couple days ago - Will's done with breakfast and I haven't eaten yet. It's 10 AM and a bowl of my soup sounds great. I sit with him at his little table while he reads books, enjoying my hot soup. He gives it a couple curious glances.

"Do you want some?" I ask. I'd be really happy if he liked my healthy soup but I don't really care. I'm pretty sure he won't want it and he's already had a healthy breakfast and HELLO, this is my soup and I'm hungry.

"No," he answers quickly.

But a couple minutes later, after I notice him check it out a few more times, I say, "Do you want some?" After the initial "NO", he peers in and points to a kidney bean.

"Haddat bean?" he asks. I fish it out and feed it to him on my spoon. "Mmmm!" he exclaims. He examines the bowl again. "Had DAT bean?" Another bite. "Dat bean. Dat bean. Two beans. Mmm!"

So I'm not eating my soup anymore. I'm foraging for all the beans. Oh well. Wouldn't hurt to go a little lower carb for a day. But then suddenly the beans are gone, and he's going, "Haddat meat? Haddat carrot?" And then before you know it, there's a small dreg of broth at the bottom and my soup is gone.

Now it's been a few days and a few more bowls of relinquished soup and I've discovered, I can't eat my darn soup unless he's sleeping! Or unless I want to pour a separate bowl for him... which of course yes I will do, because I love the thought of a soup-covered toddler, floor, and chair. Or unless I want to say "No, you can't have some," which I'm definitely not going to do because KALE and CABBAGE and free-range organic MEAT and what kind of mom is going to tell her kid to go back to his hot dog and quit asking me to eat this healthy food?!

I console myself with the reminder that it's healthy. That there's more in the fridge. That calories in < calories out = weight loss. And we all know I can use that.

So I guess there's a tactic to be learned here, though I don't quite know how to harness it. If I want my toddler to eat something... I should... selfishly hog it? Pretend I don't really want him to eat it? I know, I know. I should sit at the table with HIS food on MY plate and start eating it. That way I get to eat his food AND my food and - well, gain weight, I guess. And he'd probably catch on and say, "Go for it, mom. I didn't want to eat that anyway. Hassome graham crackers?"

I guess this time I just got lucky. Unlucky. However you choose to look at it.

-Maeg

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