I want to be clear about the genesis and veracity of this post: I wasn't sure what I was going to write about by dinnertime last night, but after Dessert, I'm Hungry (Fruit) and I'm Hungry (Salami), I was 100% sure by kid-bedtime.
Also, I did my final edits over breakfast this morning while periodically looking across the kitchen and yelling "EAT!"
Once when I was back from college I was standing in front of the cabinet just sort of idly staring at the food and I heard my mom sort of crying behind me. It took her back to me being much younger and doing _the exact same thing_ constantly, just staring at various foods waiting for the more lizardlike parts of my brain to decide what I'd be eating that moment. She also stopped cooking green beans for dinner for several years because they were my favorite vegetable.
My kids are 2,4, and 6, and I think our kids are sharing notes. This is basically exactly our house, except my kids will each eat 10 clementines in a row if we let them.
Also, Philly public schools do free breakfast and lunch for the kids and it is so liberating not to have to worry about packing lunches, but also just clearly correct and good publlic policy.
Though I am not a parent, my siblings/siblings-in-law all have made it clear that there is one important food group you forgot: berries. As I understand, every child, starting at about 1 year old, will gain the ability to eat enough berries/week to put their parents out of house and home.
We go through boxes of Goldfish to the point where I want to see if my local Costco will just deliver a pallet of them - that should sustain us for a month.
My son (10) will take a snack cup, fill it to the brim and then meticulously pile even more on to see how high he can get the pyramid of fishies before it collapses.
When I was in college it was a dollars system for the dining halls, so buying a burger was X price either cash or meal plan. I got _very_ good at building what was functionally a like $10 salad on top of my burger. I assume the checkout and meal service people knew what I was doing because I have never once been sneaky, I thank them for their discretion.
My daughters are the living embodiment of "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" when it comes to snacks. If they dont get a piece of cheese after daycare it's hell until dinner time. Now I will say that they do eat dinner, even though the oldest is going through random food phases such as not liking homemade mashed potatoes because they are chunky, but loves the daycare instant ones. We manage, but my dreaded phases is "Im hungry" immediately after handing them a snack.
My daughters have, somewhat controversially, flipped the usual progression of being particular about their food - in preschool, they would snack on sheets of nori and turn their nose up at grilled cheese sandwiches made with American cheese, and we had to keep our traps shut around friends whose children would only eat one brand of chicken nuggest in "the right shape." Throw in some accumulated sensitivities, though, and now there's all sorts of "fodmap friendly / gluten free / dairy free" eating going on. On the downside, there's a certain amount of friction when they're home between my wife's stated willingness to accommodate people's dietary needs and her absolute core intrinsic belief that "family dinner" doesn't just mean sitting together, and on the plus side, my older daughter makes some absolutely killer gluten free desserts.
the only way to *really* find out what your kids eat is during their annual checkup with the pediatrician. just fake that you're not listening, pretend you're scrolling on your phone, and they'll tell the doctor the truth. This scheme requires a great deal of restraint if you're the main cook in the family, because you feel like you're being judged too, but finding out the real truth is worth it!
I also had to remind The Kid this morning that having breakfast, tea, lunch, water, etc. sitting next to you does not make it do the thing. If you want to not be hungry or thirsty any more, you have to actually ingest the thing. The Kid is 11, and I question my sanity on a regular basis.
Scott, I think this might help with some confusion you have around people thinking you have to do math as an architect. For non-engineers/scientists/money people, "doing math" for work really just means doing anything with numbers, angles, or other things that *appear* as math, even when they are technically just math adjacent.
So, bad news, math - or at least "math", conceptually - is kinda your business. Sorry.
My 5yo son (T) typically gets up earlier than his twin sister (E) and younger sister, and so he will usually have a yogurt (or, lately, cereal, since Costco has disappointed my kids by not having Chobani Flips) — and then he’ll sometime have Second Breakfast when his siblings wake up.
The other day, as my wife was backing out of the garage to take them to preschool, they were talking to each other quietly in the back.
Then, my wife hears E, alarmed: “Mommy! Something terrible has happened. T just told me he FORGOT to eat BREAKFAST!”
So my wife calls me to confirm this story, as we maintain a “trust, but verify” approach to parenting, and I remind my son of the two adult-sized bowls of cereal he had for First Breakfast.
I never realized how much and how often children ate until we were on vacation with my nephews. Someone was either eating or making food CONSTANTLY. This is the real battle of parenthood.
I want to be clear about the genesis and veracity of this post: I wasn't sure what I was going to write about by dinnertime last night, but after Dessert, I'm Hungry (Fruit) and I'm Hungry (Salami), I was 100% sure by kid-bedtime.
Also, I did my final edits over breakfast this morning while periodically looking across the kitchen and yelling "EAT!"
Once when I was back from college I was standing in front of the cabinet just sort of idly staring at the food and I heard my mom sort of crying behind me. It took her back to me being much younger and doing _the exact same thing_ constantly, just staring at various foods waiting for the more lizardlike parts of my brain to decide what I'd be eating that moment. She also stopped cooking green beans for dinner for several years because they were my favorite vegetable.
Yes, I am the oldest child why do you ask.
"I'm hungry."
My kids are 2,4, and 6, and I think our kids are sharing notes. This is basically exactly our house, except my kids will each eat 10 clementines in a row if we let them.
Also, Philly public schools do free breakfast and lunch for the kids and it is so liberating not to have to worry about packing lunches, but also just clearly correct and good publlic policy.
Though I am not a parent, my siblings/siblings-in-law all have made it clear that there is one important food group you forgot: berries. As I understand, every child, starting at about 1 year old, will gain the ability to eat enough berries/week to put their parents out of house and home.
oh god the berries. so many berries. I didn't even think to mention them because they're just a low-lying constant
Yes the snack they eat every single day is buy one get one free.
I buy 4 boxes of it.
*Monday afternoon*
"I don't like that anymore"
This is where MY snacks come from.
We go through boxes of Goldfish to the point where I want to see if my local Costco will just deliver a pallet of them - that should sustain us for a month.
My son (10) will take a snack cup, fill it to the brim and then meticulously pile even more on to see how high he can get the pyramid of fishies before it collapses.
30 minutes later he’ll ask for another snack.
When I was in college it was a dollars system for the dining halls, so buying a burger was X price either cash or meal plan. I got _very_ good at building what was functionally a like $10 salad on top of my burger. I assume the checkout and meal service people knew what I was doing because I have never once been sneaky, I thank them for their discretion.
My daughters are the living embodiment of "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" when it comes to snacks. If they dont get a piece of cheese after daycare it's hell until dinner time. Now I will say that they do eat dinner, even though the oldest is going through random food phases such as not liking homemade mashed potatoes because they are chunky, but loves the daycare instant ones. We manage, but my dreaded phases is "Im hungry" immediately after handing them a snack.
My daughters have, somewhat controversially, flipped the usual progression of being particular about their food - in preschool, they would snack on sheets of nori and turn their nose up at grilled cheese sandwiches made with American cheese, and we had to keep our traps shut around friends whose children would only eat one brand of chicken nuggest in "the right shape." Throw in some accumulated sensitivities, though, and now there's all sorts of "fodmap friendly / gluten free / dairy free" eating going on. On the downside, there's a certain amount of friction when they're home between my wife's stated willingness to accommodate people's dietary needs and her absolute core intrinsic belief that "family dinner" doesn't just mean sitting together, and on the plus side, my older daughter makes some absolutely killer gluten free desserts.
the only way to *really* find out what your kids eat is during their annual checkup with the pediatrician. just fake that you're not listening, pretend you're scrolling on your phone, and they'll tell the doctor the truth. This scheme requires a great deal of restraint if you're the main cook in the family, because you feel like you're being judged too, but finding out the real truth is worth it!
As a civil engineer, I'm greatly appreciative of whenever an architect notes that they don't do the maths.
I also had to remind The Kid this morning that having breakfast, tea, lunch, water, etc. sitting next to you does not make it do the thing. If you want to not be hungry or thirsty any more, you have to actually ingest the thing. The Kid is 11, and I question my sanity on a regular basis.
My people!!! Though, I'm out of the design game and, jokes on everyone, forensics requires almost no math lol
To be honest, this is also a lot like what happens in my house, and we don’t have kids.
Scott, I think this might help with some confusion you have around people thinking you have to do math as an architect. For non-engineers/scientists/money people, "doing math" for work really just means doing anything with numbers, angles, or other things that *appear* as math, even when they are technically just math adjacent.
So, bad news, math - or at least "math", conceptually - is kinda your business. Sorry.
concerning
My 5yo son (T) typically gets up earlier than his twin sister (E) and younger sister, and so he will usually have a yogurt (or, lately, cereal, since Costco has disappointed my kids by not having Chobani Flips) — and then he’ll sometime have Second Breakfast when his siblings wake up.
The other day, as my wife was backing out of the garage to take them to preschool, they were talking to each other quietly in the back.
Then, my wife hears E, alarmed: “Mommy! Something terrible has happened. T just told me he FORGOT to eat BREAKFAST!”
So my wife calls me to confirm this story, as we maintain a “trust, but verify” approach to parenting, and I remind my son of the two adult-sized bowls of cereal he had for First Breakfast.
“Oh yeah! Now I remember!
…mommy, can I have a granola bar?”
"mommy! something terrible has happened."
I see your kids went to the same drama school as mine.
I read this whole thing with a wide smile across my face, chuckling about every 6 seconds
I never realized how much and how often children ate until we were on vacation with my nephews. Someone was either eating or making food CONSTANTLY. This is the real battle of parenthood.