10/25/2025
I never expected my kid to be one who turns meals into battles... I love to eat and I always have, so that never made any sense to me.
Ava finds new ways every day to make me scratch my head and wonder how I’m doing at this whole parenting thing… I am NO pro, but there is one thing that seems to be working to get this strong willed girl to eat. I thought I’d share in case any of you struggle with food fights.
If she is in a bad mood, it doesn’t matter how hungry she is or how much she loves what’s on her plate… She’s gonna climb in her seat and say “I’m not gonna eat this.”
Although I’d do just about anything for her to eat her food, I usually say something like, “Ok. You can just sit there. You don’t have to eat, but I’m not fixing you anything else.” Once she realizes that I’m not gonna change my mind, she starts eating her food.
Now here’s the hard part… I’d love to say, “See! I knew you’d eat if you got hungry enough!” But what good would that do? I hate it when someone says, “I told ya so,” and I can’t imagine that she likes it much either.
Just this morning she was upset because she decided she didn’t want her sausage biscuit after asking Zach to make it for her. We got in the car, and I said, “You can eat it or not, but you’ll probably get hungry at school.” She asked me to give her a granola bar instead and I didn’t. It wasn’t 2 minutes later and she was happily eating her sausage biscuit and said, “I do like these! I forgot!”
If you’ve got a strong willed kid, I’m with ya. Facing the battles head on is tough. It’s so easy to just give in, and I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that sometimes I give in when I’m tired… I’m just praying that the same stubbornness in her that battles with us over silly stuff now will someday make her the kind of woman who stubbornly stands up for what’s right.
