to not make her a seperate meal?

[fairy1303]

DSD lives here full time.

She is currently having a massive meltdown because I have told her we are having... shock horror... CASSEROLE for dinner.

We have this about once a month, it's cheap, easy, healthy.
I know she doesn't like it.

I have said that is what we are having, no I won't make a seperate meal.
She is telling me not to serve her any. She doesn't want it. She is crying because she 'isn't allowed any dinner'. She has phoned MIL to tell her. She is about to phone my mum to tell her too. She has phoned daddy at work to tell him.

Now, I'm pretty strict. I'm also aware of the wsm stuff.

AIBU to say: that is what we are having. There will be nothing else?

Or am I being too hard on her?

She's 8

If I offered my ds 8 food choices he would end up with breakfast at every meal. Maybe I should eat that every meal and I wouldn't be so fat.
Thanks for the reminder

The goady klaxon seems to have conveniently stopped working at hq now.

Goady goady goady goady goady goady go. childish

I was the expert before I had the children, it is all so much easier in theory

Oh yes. I knew everything there was to know before children. And I knew my dc were going to sleep right through weeks after being born. I was so convincing that other people believed that this would happen for me too.

Obviously I was wrong. So so wrong.

Put the down Brian

I don't think YABU one bit and I suspect what influences people saying you are mean etc are influenced because this is your step daughter. You have stayed she says she doesn't like it but will normally eat it. My own dd does this with casserole but she will eat it and IMHO if chooses not to that's her problem she can have something before bed. But not an alternative meal. I just wouldn't battle over it. Serve it up ignore the drama and if it continues then send her to her room or what ever you would normally do to disciplin or offer time out. Quite frankly my dd would be bathed and sent to bed if she created like this over dinner.

Omg wine and greatest kids' shows on ch5 - excellent night in with dd.

"You say you are strict like it's a good thing

Nothing wrong with strict. If 'being strict means not giving in to every tantrum, cooking three different meals just in case one of my kids doesn't fancy dinner that night, and pandering to every single whim then I suppose I'm strict.
Rather that than a complete and utter wet doormat who caves at the first sight of a tantrum (quick, give them what they want - what's that going to teach?) and lets them dictate what everyone else has to do.
THE OP'S DD TRIED IT ALL AND ATE THE ENTIRE LOT!! LIKED IT!!
Just wanted to see if by having a tantrum could be served chips or whatever instead.
No wonder there's some entitled kids out there."

^^ This post exactly!

This thread is magnificent. I don't think I've been so amused by a MN thread for quite some time. You've all done very well.

It sums up MN for me, nauticant- OP should be proud!
RL people are so boringly sensible and you don't get the same laughs, this has been hilarious in parts!

I want a tabard of Righteous superiority!

DD is designing tarbards in tech, I shall ask her

I think it should have a halo on it, I'm off to find a sketch pad!

.she can pitch it to MNHQ, and it can be awarded on a daily basis.

love it! wonderful idea, the only difficulty is choosing between the many candidates.

If i was cooking for another person (anyone, child, adult, friend, relative, whatever) there is no way I would consciously select to cook a meal that I KNOW one of the people I am cooking for don't like. I wouldn't do it once, never mind once a month.

But maybe you would Andrea if you were cooking them dinner every night, had limited funds and knew that whilst they didn't like it much they would eat it because they always do.

It's like there's this whole world between dislike and it is not my favourite that we could explore in a deliberately not quite understanding way for thousands of posts.

Part 2 - to not make her a seperate meal? - and this time it's personal

It's going to be ace.

I think we should aim to fill the thread, over 800 posts now so not far to go!

Phew just finished reading the whole thread. It makes me grateful for my mothers wicked grandmother who forced her to drink buttermilk. My mother never recovered from the ordeal. Even though I was as fussy as be damned and she never ever cooked separate meals I never ate her food growing up.

She was old school; well done cremated meat and well boiled 20 minutes before she took them off the heat veg and I was the only Irish person ever to intensely dislike potatoes so that struck out ever possible dinner combination. Anyway now I eat anything, except the above surprisingly enough although non boiled potatoes are fine, so I am definitely of the pick your battles brigade. OP I understand your point about the need to hold boundaries more than most given your situation but still I think picking your battles is worthwhile certainly the most valuable advice I was given. As for others harking back to a more pleasant time when children were seen and not heard well I personally think you get the rough with the smooth on that score but on balance I much prefer the way things are now personally.

To give the thread new legs for the last 200 posts, is no-one offended by the mis-spelling of separate? I am highly offended by this, and would like to place the OP in stocks.

I was quite encouraged by the fact that no one sidetracked it. Generally it derails a thread so that no one answers the question!

The misspelling was my very first thought, but I squashed it on grounds of nitpicking snidery.

My second, if we really want to prolong things is, will no-one think of the spices?

Exhibit A would have been made more edible by some cumin, turmeric type flavours or Moroccan-based malarkey.

Actually, it might not.

Finally, I loathe tinned tomatoes. My PIL knows this and puts then in every single thing he's cooked for me over twenty-odd years.

At first I though he was stupid, then bad-mannered. Then I suspected he didn't like me. At one point I wondered if he was intimidated by me and wanted to assert control (the analyst years). More recently I have concluded that he's just selfish.

Also he's a shit cook.

Enough for you, Wuldric?

It could have been worse.

I nearly spelt Casserole wrong.

I'm hungry now. >helpful<

OP, I usually don't care for a meat free meal but... Who doesn't love veggie sausages? (Depending on the quality of course)

I still think you and DH need to address your DD's manipulation with granny. She's old enough to know those phone calls were wrong.

Curious, what was DH's response to her tantrum?