Saturday Morning Dispatch No.13
Getting my kids to try new foods, the Zack Morris cell phone, and a quote from Steinbeck that's about road maps but also not about road maps.
Well hi there! I missed you last week! We were on our third (fourth?) round of stomach flu in 2024, also I was in the middle of a really good book, so naturally I forgot I owned a computer.
French kids might eat everything but my kids do not.
Despite the fact that I read French Kids Eat Everything while I was still pregnant with my first baby; despite feeding that first baby things like apple cheddar quinoa bites and roasted sweet potatoes with kale pesto (I was motivated); despite attempting to follow Ellyn Satter’s “Division of Responsibility with Feeding;” despite all of my best intentions, I find myself with children who fall closer to picky than to adventurous on the eating scale.
It’s annoying.
If you have Feeding Your Kids figured out, please send me the link to buy your book, but for everyone else, I thought I’d share two things I do that have been helpful for our family.
First thing. If I serve something that I know my kids don’t care for, or that they’ve never seen/tried before, I give them a very small portion, and I tell them they can smell it, squish it, lick it, or eat it. This is our version of a “no thank you bite.” It gives them a choice over how they interact with the food, and it stops a lot of mealtime power struggles before they start. Even if they choose not to eat it, it still counts as exposure - one step closer to becoming an adventurous eater!
The second thing. So far it only works with one of my kids, but it still makes me feel like a magician. I explained to my girls that you get an entirely new batch of taste buds every two weeks (this is actual science, I didn’t just make that up), so even if you didn’t like something before, you might like it now.
Here’s an example: The other day I served ground beef with rice (real gourmet stuff over here). She knows she likes the beef, but she’s highly suspicious of diced onions and green chiles and corn kernels. So I said, “Hmmm, when’s the last time you tried onions and corn? Has it been more than two weeks? You have new taste buds now so maybe you’ll like it this time.”
Y’all.
She tried a small bite with zero hesitation and chewed for a minute, then she gave me a thumbs up. WHAT?! 🤯 There were even green chiles in that bite!
This has happened more than once. Formerly terrifying runny egg yolks? Tasty. Chili-ruining beans? Not so bad! Is she begging me for runny egg yolks and beans and onions? No. Does one of my kids continue to survive mostly on peanut butter and fruit? Yes. But this is my newest trick and I am thoroughly impressed by how well it works when it works, and if you try it you have to let me know how it goes.
Enjoying Fort Bramble?
Brick this.
A few weeks ago I mentioned that I bought a Brick to block apps on my phone and that I’d report back. Here’s my take:
The Brick itself is an unimpressive square of gray plastic. Ryan and I each have one, and I put a sticker on mine to tell them apart. They’re magnetic and we keep them stuck to the fridge.
You can make as many (I think) settings as you want, blocking more, fewer, or different apps depending on what you’re trying to accomplish. The app crashed a couple times while I was setting it up, but once I got past that, I haven’t had any issues.
For me, this thing has been totally effective in making me more aware and intentional about when and how I use my phone. When I’ve used app blocking apps 🤔 in the past, it’s way too easy to bypass them, but with the Brick you have to physically have the thing with you to “unbrick” your phone. So if I’m in bed and feel like some light doomscrolling, I have to want it badly enough that I get out of bed, go downstairs, turn on the lights, and unbrick my phone. This has happened exactly never.
So would I recommend it? Yes. I’m giving my kids and other nearby humans my undivided attention, I’m reading actual books that I “didn’t have time for” before, and it is rare that I accidentally find myself down any sort of internet rabbit hole wondering where the last hour went. My phone is a tool again, rather than a tyrant. I’d say the Brick is a winner!
Quote of the Day
“Maps are not reality at all—they can be tyrants. I know people who are so immersed in road maps that they never see the countryside they pass through, and others who, having traced a route, are held to it as though held by flanged wheels to rails.”
—John Steinbeck, Travels With Charley in Search of America
I’m off to bake a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and chocolate sprinkles, as requested by this week’s birthday girl, who has may not enjoy half of what I cook for dinner, but who clearly has excellent taste in dessert.
Have a lovely weekend!
Love,
Kathryn
Loving the science lesson add in that is actually working!