In which William outwits his parents

A few nights ago, a common scene played out at our dinner table.  I had prepared a delicious and nutritious meal for my beloved offspring and husband.  Despite my culinary efforts, however, our second child, William, refused to even let the smallest piece of food pass his lips.  The particularly aggravating thing about this behavior (aside from the fact that we seem to fight this battle at least 5 nights out of 7) was that I had made a meal he devoured the first time I made it.  We have attempted a multitude of consequences in order to influence our child to eat his dinner:  No dessert, going directly to bed, no snacks the next day, not getting to watch his favorite movie...you get the idea.

On this particular evening, the boys were scheduled to go to Vacation Bible School.  I do not recall who said it first, but one of us told Will that he would not be able to attend if he did not at least try his meal.  Of course, this was a horrible thing to say.  There was no way we were going to follow through on that one.  I would not be giving up my evening of freedom just for the sake of being consistent.  I know being a parent means sacrifice, but this was asking too much.  Luckily, I saw a way out of this corner we had backed ourselves in to.  Pointing out that Will seemed unaffected by our threat, I declared that he would not be allowed to play with his beloved race cars for the rest of the week if he did not eat the rest of his dinner, though that sentence would be lightened if he at least ate a single bite.  Eric, immediately saw our precarious position and quickly backed me up on this alternative plan.  We gathered up the cars and put them on the highest shelf in our closet.  Will, admitting his defeat, managed to swallow a bite of supper in order to get to play with his cars sooner rather than later.

However, the parental victory proved to be fleeting.  The next day, William asked to play with some duplo blocks that tend to be his third or fourth non-technological choice of activity.  I happily agreed while reminding him that he could play with his cars if he ate supper that evening.  I left him to his creativity blissfully ignorant of the treachery being played out in the living room.

About an hour later I came back to discover that hidden amid the brightly colored interlocking blocks were 6 race cars that Will had placed there weeks earlier.  Score:  Will 1 - Parents .1 (I gave us a tenth of a point since he did eat a bite).

Next:  The Day the Lights went out in Fairborn