February 3, 2011

"I Hate My Life!"  Those were the words I heard yelled from our biggest little man's room tonight, after he was told that he could either eat his dinner or he could do without.  You see, in our house we have a rule that what is fixed for dinner is what we eat.  As I've told Russell many times before, I might cook something badly, but I don't cook bad food.  So it's fully known and understood that what I cook for dinner is what we ALL eat.  I don't have a rule about cleaning every bite of food off the plate, but an attempt to eat will be made.  I won't fix a separate meal for the picky ones; I won't fix a separate meal after two bites have been eaten.  It's hard enough to work all day and then come home and cook, and even more so to come home and cook TWO meals just because one chooses to whine. 
So tonight we had bowtie lasagna (will link to the recipe when I find it again) which I have made several times.  Each time it's gotten "rave reviews" and seconds have been served.  But for whatever reason tonight, a certain someone didn't want to eat any of it stating only that he "don't like that stuff".  Um, it's the same stuff we had a couple of weeks ago when you ate two plate fulls!  So he huffed and puffed and eventually it turned into a big ole drama fest complete with wailing and gnashing of teeth.  Well, that might be a little extreme, but the drama was bad enough that I was at the point of just giving in and getting him cereal. 
But Ben stood firm and gave Russell three choices...1) heat up some of the noodles of the leftovers since he was "sooooo hungry"...2) lay on the couch quietly and watch TV...3) go to his room where he could continue his fit.  Russell chose option three.  He shut his door and proceeded to slam things around, mumble and talk about all sorts of nonsense that I'm probably glad I couldn't hear (he is my child remember!).  And finally, when I had muted the TV, I caught the heart-breaking "I Hate My Life!".  Right then and there I cussed myself for this stupid rule that I have.  Why can't I just fix the kid what he wants for dinner?  Why didn't I just get him some cereal in the first place?  Would one more piece of garlic bread really have been that bad for him? 
So what's a mom to do?  Do you fix separate meals for everyone each night?  Have you changed your house rules after an outburst like this, or did an outburst like this cause new rules to be put into place?  Russell's always been my good kid, so this is new territory for me.  Is he just trying to get his way, or does he really think his life is that bad?  I mean, I know 6 year olds don't really know what a "bad" life is; heck, I don't even know what that is!  But in his eyes am I just horrible?  Ugh, us Mom's sure aren't paid enough for the situations that our jobs sometimes put us in.