We started an interesting conversation at the dinner last night because once again the kids came to the table insisting that they “don’t like supper”… Not this specific supper, because they hadn’t even seen it, just supper in general. Like somehow the concept of an evening meal offends their sensibilities. Evenings should be for wild games that end in grievous injury, TV shows, pop corn and ice cream. Not for SUPPER?!!! or baths or reading stories quietly before bed… The sheer indignity of these suggestions!

Anyway, it had been a long day. And week. And I was tired and cranky. So for once I wasn’t up for their moans. I insisted they try everything on their plates, to much further whining and protestation. Eventually we got through it. Their dad suggested that they need more of a role in choosing what we will eat. Perhaps they could help decide what will  be for supper each night. I nearly threw my supper at him. But after some back and forth among the 4 of us, I proposed a weekly “kid night”. Once a week they pick the menu for supper. I will serve what they choose. We will have to plan ahead, make sure we have the ingredients, and review the menu for acceptability. To get us started on the right foot, we made a list of foods that they find acceptable for this horror that is known as supper. We made it clear these things had to be “healthy choices”, not things like ice cream or candy. The list surprised me with is variety, thought certainly beige foods and carbs were prominent, and the exercise seemed to cheer them no end.

So, today was our first trip together to the grocery store to select the items for our first kid night, which will be tomorrow. They chose lamb lollipops (frenched rack of lamb that can be cut into chops which have a lovely bone handle and rather resemble lollipops) and red and yellow peppers, to be served raw. I can live with that. Plus prep will take about 5 mins! I am excited and nervous about this experiment and felt I had to share it somehow. I am curious to see how it all goes and whether they really will dislike supper less if they have had more say in the whole process. I am also wondering whether it will improve our supper experience in general and lead to more tolerance of the other meals I serve during the rest of the week. I am slightly terrified that it won’t work at all and they will suddenly hate lamb lollipops and the whole idea of having to take responsibility or participate in meals.

Please tell me you’ve tried this and it was miraculous, leading you to a new era of less stressed evenings, more harmonious meals as a family, and better eating habits for all… Or let me know now if similar experiments at your home led to a bitter war in which everyone went on a hunger strike and you ended up comfort eating bag of chips alone in the dark. Or just stay tuned and I will let you know how it goes here tomorrow, and perhaps you can try it too. Perhaps we can share successes and horrors about feeding children and keeping them alive from day to day.