To only give kids shit food?

[Crocsandshocks]

Bear with me. I'm cultivating an inner scream.

I try to make a real effort to cater to my kids tastes. They are completely and entirely different to mine. I like curries, Thai, veg stir fries, tofu, lentils etc. I'm pescatarian. My kids have different tastes. They like ham, pasta, bolognase, Burges, fish fingers, sausages etc.

I try to meet them in the middle and though I dislike cooking meat, will cook it a couple of times a week and offer up soups or Dahl and flatbread or something the other days.

I have started getting hello fresh. I deliberately ordered a chicken flat bread Street food one, as I thought they would like that (I adapted my portion to use mushrooms instead of chicken).

It took 50 minutes to cook it. I burned my finger in the process. It used up most of the baking dishes and frying pans. When I served it just now, one moaned constantly about the topping on the corn. The other rocked on his chair and sat with legs acimbo, with bits of food hanging out of his mouth.

I was a hot sweaty and sweary mess. Over half of each of theirs was left untouched. I've refrigerated what leftovers I can and am going to sneak it into their packed lunch tomorrow.

However, I am a bit broken. They're getting ready for bed and are now claiming they are hungry 😩AIBU to just go back to shit food? Like frozen pizza and pesto pasta.

I'm so confused, your kids are 7 and 10, has this always been a thing? My husband and kids (8&10) have different tastes, but I'm usually able to make meals we all like, it just limits what I can make. Forcing them to eat food they don't like can lead to a bad relationship with food right here, so I suggest find a quick and healthy back up they can make for themselves if they don't like the family meal, think turkey or PB&J on whole grain with carrot sticks or apple slices. Make like a loaf of breads worth ahead of time and freeze them for quick access

Absolutely agree (unless of course there are genuine reasons such autism etc).

never ever in my life (my boys are 21 and 17) have I ever cooked different meals for them to what I’ve cooked as the main meal.

of course, every child and adult absolutely has the right to dislike some foods, I get that. But, other than that, children should eat what’s given to them or go hungry that night. It’s not a bloody hotel.

i once had a boyfriend who insisted his kids only ate 1) microwave macaroni cheese 2) cheese pizza. Not a thing else. I once cooked them all a huge roast chicken Sunday lunch and his kids ate and relished every mouthful - they had seconds and thirds. He couldn’t believe it. When I asked why they wouldn’t a roast normally, he said ‘oh when our family does a roast, it’s just plain grilled chicken breast and frozen roast potatoes’ ie no taste to any of it whatsoever. Once they tasted proper moist, garlicky, crispy chicken and proper homemade roasties,they lapped it up

For some reason replying to comment won't work. My bad.

OP you're letting the inmates run the asylum. Hunger is an option. It's bedtime and now they are hungry? Kiss their forehead and remind them of the dinner they didn't eat. Don't forget empty tummies are less likely to turn down breakfast.

Cut out snacks. And for heaven sakes don't supplement those ensure drinks. They need food. The youngest watched the older one get away with this and is repeating the behavior. Nip this in the bud now.

Praise them when they try new things too.