Fonticulus Fides

Monday, November 06, 2006

The right kind of picky eater

Cousin M, the babysitter, tried to treat the kids to Burger King for lunch last week. My oldest and youngest succumbed to temptation, but Edyn (age 4) steadfastly refused and held out for a late lunch at home.

An indignant Cousin M told me that Edyn had claimed Burger King was made out of camels! So we had to get that worked out.

Mom: Who told you that Burger King had camels in it?

Edyn: Daddy.

Mom: (Glares at Daddy.)

Dad: I never said that! (Thinks for a minute.) Oh, chemicals. She means chemicals.

Mom: Oh! Okay, I can run with that. (Mom explains the difference between camels and chemicals. Has Edyn repeat the word "chemicals" a few times to make sure she can say it. Decides to rehearse this a few more times at given intervals, just in case.)

Sunday afternoon...

Mom: Edyn, why don't you like Burger King food?

Edyn: Because it has chemicals in it.

Mom: Yep, chemicals.

Dad: (Trying to expand the lesson) Why don't you like McDonald's food?

Edyn: Because it's poisonous.

Mom & Dad: (Unsuccessfully attempt to smother their laughter)

Dad: We can't let her go around saying that, because it's not true.

Mom: I dunno...I might be able to make a case for it...


--Sparki

posted by Sparki at 5:14 PM

4 Comments:

  • Just found your blog!

    In Jesus,
    Maria in the UK
    www.inhishands.co.uk

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4:34 AM  

  • The funny thing is I read when I was a little kid that the first "hamburgers" were made in Egypt from raw camel meat, possibly without a bun (maybe they were just the first meat patties, then?) I have no idea how close this is to any kind of truth.

    My kids had McDonald's this week :( But it's been progress from past multi-McNugget-meal weeks for the older boy. They don't reject this stuff, but at least the little one wouldn't eat his second-birthday commercial ice cream cake and had birthday watermelon instead. He's generally not into sweets, ice cream, baked goods.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 5:13 PM  

  • Btw, I don't know if they have Boston Market where you are but their ingredient lists are surprisingly pleasing, to someone who's generally skeptical of commercial "homestyle" food. It may work out a bit more expensive than dollar menu burgers and fries, but since you probably don't eat out much, if you need a fast-foodish meal for your kids some time you might be more comfortable with it.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 5:19 PM  

  • We do have one Boston Market out here (at one time we had four in town), but it's so frequently closed down by our health department, we don't go there very often.

    My husband used to manage a restaurant, and he said himself that our health department is staffed by extremists -- they will shut you down for the soup being 160 degrees instead of the minimum of 170, which is not a difference you can tell without a thermometer and probably doesn't put the food at risk if it was fresh in the morning -- but there's really no way of knowing if the Boston Market is shut down for REAL issues or not. They're closed at least three times a year, though. Creepy, huh.

    With our old house on the market & the new one in "fixing up" mode, we're eating out a LOT more than usual. I've managed to compile a list of all the sit-down that have kids meals free on a certain night. On Monday, that amounted to more than $12 savings on our ticket, and the older kids had spaghetti and meatballs, while the youngest feasted on grilled chicken, steamed broccoli and fresh cantelope. Plus we had enough leftovers for Tuesday night's supper.

    I took the kids to Applebees for one Tuesday night when we had a private showing of our house. They had 99-cent kids meals, and the kids had burgers, but it came with an option for applesauce, which is a wee bit healthier than fries. I got two applesauces and one fries, and split it three ways. No leftovers for their meals (I took home half my salad for Wed. lunch, though), but it still was only about $12 for the four of us. Actually cheaper than fast food!!

    We also try to frequent the locally owned eateries, which sometimes also have 99-cent kid's meals. Some of them will have bad stuff on the menu, like corn dogs with GREY MEAT. Or they'll want $3.25 for a peanut butter and jelly sandwhich, which I think is pretty reprehensible, since you can make one at home for like a quarter.

    Only downside to all of this is that my kids have become addicted to balloons and practically expect one with every meal.

    By Blogger Sparki, at 9:19 AM  

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