to think it's not child abuse to make the DC's....

[BigMomma3]

eat spanish style chickpea stew with wilted spinach . DD has made herself choke to get out of eating it and DS1 has been in tears at the table. I cannot believe the fuss they made! DS2 ate it all after a slap bit of gentle encouragement!!

DD screamed 'why can't we eat normal food like normal families?' When asked to elaborate she said we should eat mashed potatoes, chips, fishfingers and sausages etc (which we do eat as well as my veggie concoctions ).

I have also refused to buy their usual Cocopops and Cheerios and am making organic porridge with dessicated coconut and golden syrup for their breakfast and we were late for school this morning due to the amount of time it took for DS1 to take one spoonful . I am sick of them always wanting to eat crap (although even if I give them pizza or chips they usually don't eat much because they are constantly raiding the fridge). AIBU to take a stand or am I wasting my time??? They are aged between 7 & 12 BTW

my little kids ( i have big too) eat wilted spinach and beg for more no lie

they only eat healthy breakfast cereals

stick with it bigmomma3 it will pay dividends when they start loving good food

My hatred of chickpeas and coconut makes me believe that YABU

I write their initial or draw a face in porridge and/or yoghurt using date syrup. It looks quite a lot like chocolate and is sweet so quite accessible even for fussy kids.

my kids now think kids yoghurts to be devils work
they only eat greek yoghurt (plain) but add fruit - rhubarb or apricots for example

its all about re training taste buds

I couldn't live iwtohut cocoonut or chickpeas.
Seriously

Another one for the chickpea club! OP your stew sounds yummy, I'm going to try it this week! This type of meal is standard fare in our house, but then I am a chickpea hugging veggie!

I laughed at your OP and also sighed and thought "that'll probably be me one day!" Tell them I have a dd who's only 17 months old and loves chickpeas and spinach! She has eaten the same meals as me and dp since we started weaning. She loooves pulses and all things green like spinach and broccoli. To her it's just normal food, not exotic, weird "adult" food or whatever.

The thing is, here in Spain most children eat "kiddie food" and get loads of burgers and crisps and cakes every single day, so I'm absolutely certain the day will come when she "realises" she's a weirdo and will want to eat "normal" food "like everyone else". So I'm thinking, crisps, sugary cereal, chips or whatever could be a once a week treat, because after all, it's all about balance and I don't want her to have issues with food and scoff entire chocolate cakes every day because "she never got any treats at home..." I just have no idea what I'll do when she has to go to birthday parties at McDonald's... no veggie option here...

Anyway, I think that if you want your kids to eat proper meals as a family, then go for it! No reason why they can't eat the kind of meal you've made them tonight whatsoever. IMO you should ease them in gradually though and make sure and still give them mashed potato and fish fingers and those kinds if simple "kiddie meals" and sugary cereals, etc, once a week or whatever... Gives you a break from cooking too.. I love cracking open the baked beans!

Mmmm chickpea and spinach stew - DD(6) happily eats similar. I don't get why anyone thinks children wouldn't like that tbh - ok so maybe the spinach might put them off but every kid I know likes pulses.

Whats wrong with Cheerios - Nestle for a start. And they are 21% sugar.

Porridge, weetabix, puffed wheat/rice, cornflakes, oats - all are good cereals with minimal crap/sugar. DD has raisins on her cereal and frozen berries in her porridge with a dollop of yoghurt on top.

OP, YANBU. Keep serving it up and sooner or later they'll eat it.

My kids look wistfully at hideous kiddy yoghurts when we shop but never even bother asking.

When in very good mood I buy them those crappy little variety pack things as i remmeber how much I loved them when little.

We have exactly the same dinner table conversations in my house. Kids complaining bitterly that they have to eat healthy food when all their mates have pizza and chicken nuggets every night. We had lentil and coconut casserole with sweet potatoes tonight, although we don't eat veggie every night, and tomorrow it will be plain old home cooked shepherd's pie. I think the healthy food is why my kids are tall, slim, bright and gorgeous (but I could be biased). I think chickpeas and spinach sounds delicious (my kids love chickpeas, but I have to hide spinach) and think you should stick to your guns.

i want porridge now.

If you are putting condensed milk on porridge then apart from price coco pops would really not be too different.

lol we have variety packs of cereal when we go camping. my toddler is very suspicious of cocopops, can't work out what's wrong with the crispies (as am i, 6yo loves em ).

I love porridge and have managed to convert 2out of 3
Can you offer a selection of 4 small bowls on the table to help themselves into the porridge?

Brown sugar
Cream
Blueberries
Jam

kids are control freaks and so if they think they can do something to it, great.

And I love the idea of spinach and chickpeas. I do that as a curry too.
Well done you for persevering. Ungrateful little sods!

Lock the damn fridge!

A friend of mine has 'chips and crap' day on fridays.

thirtypence?

apart from the fact that oats are great slow release and actually fill you up

oh they have pizza on fridays
the stuffed crust one from the freezer

we all look forward to it

I tried desiccated coconut on dd's porridge and it was horrible IMO. I put a tiny bit of jam or honey or golden syrup. Yes I know it's sugar but a little bit makes it taste gorgeous and better that they eat all the porridge with the sugar than hardly any of it. Oatibix bitesize is another option...

i've never had a single complaint about our food not being "normal" but dd1 is only 6. she does specifically request sugary things in her lunch box - something cakey or chocolatey - but given she is a very round child ( irrespective of her lifelong varied healthy whole food diet) that's something that's only going to happen occasionally.

Ah, the everlastind mn tone of people taking food very seriously indeed

I take food more seriously than I do anytihng else relaly. Apart from wine.

So do I Moondog. Food and weed.

I'm all for healthy food and broadening horizons but setting yourself up for a fight with the kids isn't worth it.
I'd let the breakfast thing go, to be honest. I'd rather they went to school energised by a mostly healthy breakfast and try something new in the evenings. I also make sure that there is something on the plate that they do like.

Thanks for the recipe, sounds worth a try. But possibly for me and dh rather than ds (I'd offer it to ds but be ready with an alternative if he really disliked it - am scarred by childhood memories of being forced to eat stuff that I found repellent).

Can't stand porridge personally, horrible gloopy stuff, and porridge with golden syrup sounds even more calorific than coco pops.

Yup, another vote for locking the fridge. And maybe you could get them excited about their new meals by helping with the cooking or make it "themed" somehow, like if you have a Spanish meal then you all can talk about Spain a bit while you eat or something... do they know any words in Spanish like ?Hola? or ?Adiós?? Or have you been there on your hols? Maybe you could speak in a Spanish accent Sorry, I'm getting carried away now, as you were everyone...