Short Order Cook

At the risk of making myself sound really old here, there are some things that go on now that never, ever would have happened "back in my day", as the old folks often say. The older I get, the more accurate that phrase seems to become.  Before I sat down to write this, I searched my soul.  I thought long and hard to see if my heart was in the right place.  Am I just a mommy who is fed up with picky eaters?  Am I getting lazy in my "old age"?  Do I have a legitimate reason to bring this subject up?  Am I the ONLY mommy dealing with this nonsense?  Well...the truth is, I am hearing more and more mommies on the same boat as me.  We have been relegated to short order cook for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for each member of our family, making meal planning, grocery shopping, and cooking a much larger, more tedious chore than it should be.

When I was a child, family meal time was a time of joy.  We shared our day, stories, jokes, hopes, dreams, and lots of laughs.  What I don't remember though, is any of us eating anything other than the one meal my mother prepared for us.  Like it or not, it's what's for dinner.  There was something on the table that you liked, even if you didn't like it all, but no one got a special meal made just for them. How did we get away from this tradition?  More importantly, how did I get away from it? 

Looking back, I think of how my short order cook mentality started. First, it was the husband. After my first marriage where I lived under the cloud of mental, emotional, and verbal abuse came to an end, God has blessed me with my wonderful second husband.  God has brought me a very long way from the mess the first hubby left, but I still battle, at times, the fear that I am not good enough.  Because of that, there is an intense desire in me to make sure my current husband is happy, always...no matter what.  When we first got married, every meal was cooked with his preferences in mind. I loved making him happy, and I didn't even care if the foods weren't my favorites, as I grew up eating whatever was fixed....no biggie! Then we added our beautiful daughter.  She was so tiny...and picky...and we were so worried about her not gaining enough weight.  Suddenly, I found myself not just cooking to please the hubby, but now I was cooking whatever my baby girl would eat as well just because she NEEDED to eat. 

Now it is me, my husband, my daughter, and finally our little boy.  He is a laid back little guy and he was pretty much be happy with anything until about a year ago when he realized "if sissy can get something different, why can't I", and suddenly he became a bit more picky with his choices. So that left me cooking the main meal for my husband and I, sometimes the boy would eat with us, but other times he wouldn't, and then I would have to find something to fix for my kids to eat, and generally, neither of them wanted the same thing either. By the time I fixed my husband's plate, and fixed the meals for the kids, my food was lukewarm at best, but mostly cold and in need of a run through the microwave.

It just hit me the other night as I stood by the microwave heating my dinner, that I cooked a nice meal for my family, all while feeling very bad from a migraine, and I should not have to eat cold, reheated food because they simply don't want what I fixed.  I created this monster now I must destroy it. I am taking back my family time for dinner, and like it or not, you eat what I make, or you just don't eat. That is how I grew up, and I didn't starve.  The short order cook has been fired. There is one special of the day and that is it!