There is nothing quite like the experience of eating with a young child. One fundamental aspect of eating with any young child is the inevitable pickiness.
No, this does not refer to food pickiness, although that creates so much joy in feeding little kids.
I was referring to the fact that if there is any slight difference among the dishes that you use to eat, your young child will pick a favorite. If you don't give them their favorite dishes to eat off of, they will immediately pitch a screaming fit and refuse to eat off the rejected dishes. However, the person that has the favorite dish might find their food disappearing into the mouth of the young child. True story.
This malady is not merely limited to every single child in our family, however. No, it's limited to every single young child able to tell the difference between red and blue.
In order to resist the urge to give in to your young picky children, I have devised the following ways to get them to eat off the unwanted dishes anyway.
(Disclaimer: While most of these methods have been tested and used by yours truly, I cannot guarantee 100% success. I can't even guarantee any success.)
1) Give all your children assigned dishes for their own personal use. This will eliminate arguing between the children on who gets what dishes. Although one would note that if there is one group favorite among all the dishes you own, someone's feelings will get hurt. In that case, I would suggest that you hurt everyone's feelings and don't give the dish to anyone, possibly keeping it for your own use.
2) Get rid of all your dishes. Buy new ones, making sure they are all identical, and use those instead.
3) Tell them to suck it up, life isn't fair, and eat off the unwanted dishes anyway.
4) Lie to them. If they ask for a blue cup, tell them the green cup you are holding in your hand is blue. They won't know.
5) Gather all the children together. Tell them you are going to give them a lesson in letting go of material objects. Destroy the beloved dish in front of their young, innocent eyes. You may have to worry about them needing therapy later in life, but the lack of whining at the dinner table will be worth it.
There you are. Save some precious sanity. Prevent children from making your eating habits determined by colors.
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