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Picky
T'other week, I took my mom to Asiana House for her first foray into good sushi. The hostess sat us next to a mother/guardian-type and three small children.
The guardian-type cheerfully scarfed down her food. Clearly, she was the reason the four of them were there at all, because the three kids were literally not eating any of their food. I think one of them may have asked for more rice, but was denied on account she hadn't actually eaten the rice she was then playing with.
It was my mom who pointed out the bit I didn't pay attention to: the guardian-type told the kids they had better eat something, because this would be their dinner for the night. I didn't think much of it until my mom started talking after that quartet left about how she'd dealt with her own four picky eaters -- yes, including me -- but it was only tonight that I really, viscerally agreed that bringing three small children to Asiana House, which has nothing resembling a children's menu, seemed a silly thing to do.
I mean, I'm all for getting kids to try new food. I hope to introduce any kids I may have to the delights of sushi fairly early in their lives. And yeah, I can agree with that principle that kids should learn to eat what's provided (assuming it's not harmful to them in some way, by way of allergies or what-not), although I'm not sure if it applies when one has a choice of restaurants like you do in the downtown area. But there's a line of common sense when it comes to the very young and outre cuisine and that lady crossed it by a wide margin.
When dining out with children, not only are you taking a gamble on whether the kids will actually eat anything, but you're also setting yourself up for a bad rest of the evening, if you're going to insist that was their dinner and it is now their tough luck. They'll be hungry; hunger leads to crankiness; crankiness leads to fighting and tantrums, etc. Yeah, you can be the disciplinarian there, too, but why set yourself up for it? Seems like a lot of stress for no good reason than the guardian-type wanted sushi. I mean, I love sushi, too, but I wouldn't choose it if the consequences were cranky kids for the rest of the night.
And secondly, the food Asiana House serves up isn't exactly cheap. Even if she picked out the cheapest items on the menu for the kids, it's still rather wasteful of money and the foodstuff itself. They're kids; what's more, they're really young kids. They're going to be picky. You must know this, so roll with it.
I don't know. I'm just a product of my upbringing. Like I said, my mom had her own tactics for dealing with picky eaters, which worked out pretty well. They were usually figure out what things everyone will eat and rely on those, plus figure out what easy to make things one or two demand and keep them supplied as needed. Maybe my mom was over-accomodating on the discipline-laxness spectrum, but she's happy with the choices she made and I love her for it all.
Hem.
The guardian-type cheerfully scarfed down her food. Clearly, she was the reason the four of them were there at all, because the three kids were literally not eating any of their food. I think one of them may have asked for more rice, but was denied on account she hadn't actually eaten the rice she was then playing with.
It was my mom who pointed out the bit I didn't pay attention to: the guardian-type told the kids they had better eat something, because this would be their dinner for the night. I didn't think much of it until my mom started talking after that quartet left about how she'd dealt with her own four picky eaters -- yes, including me -- but it was only tonight that I really, viscerally agreed that bringing three small children to Asiana House, which has nothing resembling a children's menu, seemed a silly thing to do.
I mean, I'm all for getting kids to try new food. I hope to introduce any kids I may have to the delights of sushi fairly early in their lives. And yeah, I can agree with that principle that kids should learn to eat what's provided (assuming it's not harmful to them in some way, by way of allergies or what-not), although I'm not sure if it applies when one has a choice of restaurants like you do in the downtown area. But there's a line of common sense when it comes to the very young and outre cuisine and that lady crossed it by a wide margin.
When dining out with children, not only are you taking a gamble on whether the kids will actually eat anything, but you're also setting yourself up for a bad rest of the evening, if you're going to insist that was their dinner and it is now their tough luck. They'll be hungry; hunger leads to crankiness; crankiness leads to fighting and tantrums, etc. Yeah, you can be the disciplinarian there, too, but why set yourself up for it? Seems like a lot of stress for no good reason than the guardian-type wanted sushi. I mean, I love sushi, too, but I wouldn't choose it if the consequences were cranky kids for the rest of the night.
And secondly, the food Asiana House serves up isn't exactly cheap. Even if she picked out the cheapest items on the menu for the kids, it's still rather wasteful of money and the foodstuff itself. They're kids; what's more, they're really young kids. They're going to be picky. You must know this, so roll with it.
I don't know. I'm just a product of my upbringing. Like I said, my mom had her own tactics for dealing with picky eaters, which worked out pretty well. They were usually figure out what things everyone will eat and rely on those, plus figure out what easy to make things one or two demand and keep them supplied as needed. Maybe my mom was over-accomodating on the discipline-laxness spectrum, but she's happy with the choices she made and I love her for it all.
Hem.