Eating woes

So I was reading a blog over at Cheaty Monkey all about Haley-O being excited about her daughter finally eating. It must be nerve racking to watch your child all day long, picking away at his/her food, wondering if they are consuming enough calories. I have a friend with two kids who are like that. They pick and pick at their food. Snacks are available all day, anytime, in hopes that they will eat.

I, on the other hand, have the opposite problem and I swear, somedays, it's going to drive me to drink (a habit I sadly gave up years ago). My kids want to eat ALL THE TIME. We eat a good breakfast here. I remind them that this is all there is until lunch and they look at me and say they're all done. As soon as we get into the car to go into town for our morning activity, they start asking. Baby Boy says it as soon as you plant his bum in his car seat. "I want en-ga (his toddler word for food)". We go to the park. Baby Boy doesn't play - he just eats. We sit on the park bench for hours, just snacking away on whatever I have in the backpack. Sometimes I only bring one snack - a fruit bar or fish crackers, and he has an absolute meltdown if there's not more to eat. If we have friends at the park, they want to eat their snack too. I often question why we even go to the park, when we could have very happily just stayed home and ate all morning.

I honestly believe that food is one of the hardest parts of being a mother for me. It feels like that's what I spend the majority of my day doing - making food, thinking about food, cleaning up food. I hate thinking about what to make for meals. I wonder if my kids get sick of eating the same things over and over again, but I just can't find more exciting things to make. And when I do finally get some inspiration, they don't eat. What's up with that?

So for all the parents out there that worry about whether their kids are eating enough, know that on the opposite end of the spectrum, there are parents with non-stop eaters having our own frustrations with the never ending requests.