Eating, one of the constant bane’s of a mother’s existence.

There’s the food you buy that you want your children to eat, there’s the food that goes bad because they won’t eat it (even if it was perfectly acceptable yesterday), and then there’s the things they actually do eat.

My children eating affects me in two different ways.  My six year-old is an eating machine.  Almost every 42 minutes, he hurtles himself in to me, rubs his head against my stomach like he might get filled through osmosis and whines, “I’m hungry…..what can I have to eat?”

The amount of times I go through this scenario determines the amount of ounces of wine I drink at night.

I’m one of the “lucky” ones; my child will eat, and I totally understand why that makes me lucky, but if only it wasn’t so constant.  I have sensible food choices available to him to get, and he’ll get it, but first we have to go through the hurtling, head rub routine as I remind him of all the choices he has.  Like his eyes are broken and only through my words does the food magically appear in front of him.  Almost every 42 minutes.

Don’t give me problems; give me solutions

That’s been my latest survival tact with him when his anvil of a head burrows into my stomach.  Two years running and still not successful, but I have faith.  It’s that “mom optimism” at work again.  Maybe he’ll find the solution to his hunger and won’t need to involve me in it.  Until he finishes eating all four apples, two bunches of grapes, a cheese stick (why do I even bother with these?  no child has ever been satisfied at the conclusion of a cheese stick), two snack cups of cheerios and a carrot.  Between lunch and dinner.  The amount of food I have to buy to keep this child satisfied is severely hampering any lu la roe addiction I’d like to have.  He’s only six.  I hear it gets much, much worse.  There goes the shoe addiction I’d like to have, too.

Only food goes in your mouth

That seems like a valuable, overall, life lesson for my four year-old.  And surprising to me that I still am saying this.  At least once a week.  She started eating anything from the onset. And her diet is more varied than her brother’s, which is great, as long as it sticks to food.  When I started to find even more interesting surprises in her diaper, I knew I had a problem.  Not just poop surprises, but random lego pieces.  Or when our twistable crayons started turning up empty.  And the sponge part of our dot markers disappeared.  I realized she’s eating everything.  It was cute when she’d break in to the fridge to grab a crown of broccoli and eat it.  It isn’t cute when there are bite sized missing pieces of our colored pencils.

At least they are eating – it could be worse

I get it.  I’m pretty lucky that even if their meals sometimes include sand, they still are eating a varied diet.  Unendingly.

Hey Moms – do you have children that are eating everything in sight?  Or do you have children that you have to coax in every single bite?  Tell us in the comments or continue the conversation on our facebook page.