Why is it that when you put food in front of young children they look at you like you have vomited on their plate? I often find myself negotiating at the dinner table just to get them eat something that really doesn't taste bad at all. Not everything tastes like M&M's. I have read the books about how to sneak the good stuff into the tasty stuff. Please, give me a break. I don't about everyone else, but my kids watch TV, they are nt dumb. As soon as those books came out they were all over me about not trying that sneaky stuff. I was advised by a 5 year old that I had better not pull that on him or he will be making his own dinner. Oh, how I was tempted. I would love to see him make a large meal and do it all with Chocolate and Potato Chips.

So there I am the day after they watched a mom on television sneaking some broccoli into a snack. I look around and I see a boy peaking around the corner and hear the other telling him what to look for. I couldn't let this go unnoticed for too long. I mean come on, who wouldn't want to freak out the little sneaks. They watched as I put the meat into the bowl and added the crackers and ketchup. If there is one thing I know, it's that my boys love a meatloaf. I would turn around periodically to make sure they will still watching. Just when they thought it was safe, I reached into the cabinet above the oven and grabbed a can of soft dog food. Sure I didn't want to waste the ground beef, but this was to good to pass up. No sooner than the dog food hit the meatloaf, my 5 year old ran around the corner. "MOM" he screamed, "I told you, I knew you were putting yuck into the food". I laughed so hard I thought I was gonna pee my pants. It took over an hour for me to explain to him that I was only joking. He wasn't buying it. It ended up being a week of fast food before he would eat what I cooked. Now he sits there at the table and watches me make every meal swearing that not only will I put something nasty into it, but it will be dog food nasty. Now if only he will realize that all the fast food he wants so much is truly loaded down with the "Nasty". Just this morning I spent and hour to make them a huge breakfast. Eggs, bacon, pancakes all the trimmings. I even cut up strawberries. My youngest ate until he couldn't fit anything else into his little belly. As you might suspect, Mr. Food Cop had two bowls of cold cereal followed by a carefully inspected glass of orange juice. I couldn't help but ask him what he thought was in the orange juice. In that sweet little voice so sincere he replied "I just wanted to make sure you didn't sneak any of that milk in there mom".

Learn more about this author, Dawn Pikey-Borgmann.
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