The Kitchen Is Closed

Dinner is sometimes almost as painful as bath time for the simple reason that our kids don't want to eat the food. Well, the two youngest aren't entirely to blame because they are too young to really understand when we say they need to eat everything. Our oldest has a different issue. He understands perfectly, but the minute he sits at the table is mind becomes consumed with thoughts and ideas and questions that he needs to ask. He gets so caught up in his thoughts that he doesn't even begin eating until twenty minutes after we've sat down to eat. By then, the two girls are done. This dilemma leads us to today's dinner-time strategy. Upon sitting down to eat we declared that dinner is over and the kitchen is closed at a certain time. Throughout dinner we would count down at five-minute intervals. Tonight was also movie night, and we told them that in order to get a treat during the movie they had to earn it by eating everything. Unfortunately, everything came to an anti-climactic ending. They didn't earn their treat, and only the baby finished dinner. Our oldest was upset (our toddler didn't care). But, we stuck to our guns and can only hope that this lesson sinks in at some point. Other than that, movie night was a blast as usual.