Apparently I'm tight for not letting DD have a yoghurt instead of her tea!

[TheUnsullied]

She's 2.3. It's a tea she's eaten many times before and a favourite of mine because of the veg hiding potential...chilli con carne with some wholemeal pita bread. She normally wolfs it. She decided not to even touch it, which is fine.

5 minutes later she's asked for a yoghurt. I've said no. If she'd eaten any of her tea she could have had one but she's not having one instead of a meal. I've given her tea back to her and a tantrum has ensued.

I think this is fairly run of the mill with a toddler. DFriend is making out that it's cruel to not give a yoghurt to her because she's not eaten.

Toddler years are a great time to set a child palate and get them into balanced healthy eating ways. Better starting with the bar a highish, then getting into poor habits from the start and then having to work extra hard to establish good eating habits. We just serve one family meal here and it's rarely ever an issue.

That's not what's happened on this thread Freedom. I actually feel much less like a shitty parent having gathered the opinions of others and discovered that many agree with me. Which is kind of the point of MN, no?

Thats not how your responses read.

Perhaps read back through them but pretend the thread was posted in chat?

That was my point, its not in chat, its in aibu. And reads very like :Aibu? yes. No, I'm not don't be silly.
Just stick it in chat then.

The very first time I will say 'don't be silly' on this thread is about to follow: don't be silly. The 'argument' you're currently trying to have is better suited for situations where consensus is unanimous against the OP but OP won't accept they might be wrong. That isn't what's happened here. There's a pretty even distribution of opinions and people are discussing them. What's happened is that you've decided that for the AIBU topic, not nearly enough people had gotten shirty with the OP.

OP definitely not unreasonable. I sometimes think those that say 2 is too young either have older children and have forgotten or no children at all. Children of that age do know consequences and if I go to a friend's house and they've cooked me something I don't fancy I eat it, if my husband cooks me something I don't fancy I also eat it (especially something I would normally wolf down). I found my 2 yr old forever pushed boundaries and I had to be very strict or she would be a nightmare. Now at 7 she is delightful and a perfect child at school (apparently!). Little do they know the battles we had as a toddler. She now also eats everything, behaves well at other people's houses when they cook and knows when she is full.

Glad you didn't give her gruel

I wouldn't have the first idea how to go about cooking gruel in fairness there may be a science to getting it perfect.

I have three courses to a meal for my lo. She has her main meal (today it was meatballs and pasta ) then pudding (on a special occasion something like cake or normally a yogurt or similar) and then some fruit. They are in appropriate portions to her age. If she declines one she gets the next whether or not she's eaten the previous. If she asks for food later (signing) we do the same cycle with her leftovers. If she's really hungry she'll eat it. She is only 13 months and it seems to work.

I can't see where you have answered..If she usually eats a good diet..I would tend to follow what was up thread not normal behaviour so wouldn't make it a big issue.

I think in the real world most don't panic about a yoghurt or consider it junk food..

It came up on my time hop when my DS was that age he had tonsillitis anf had managed a packet of chocolate stars and some rice pudding all day.. Despite that he eats a wide diet.

I look beyond why not eating..Over tired, too hot, gets it too often because mum hides veggies in it.. My DS fave veg has changed many times, from carrots, broccoli , peas and sweetcorn.. probably because I go overboard with his fave...

I don't expect a 2.3 year old to learn anything..My Ds did not expect pudding at every meal till he went to others for dinner..We sometimes had pudding sometimes didn't... It taught him to eat his dinner not eat it for a sweet treat at the end.