Tasting like Patio Chair

Scott and I are torn. Do we make Connor try every food on his plate? Or do we just feed him what we know he will eat?

It's been SO hard to try and get Connor to eat new foods. And we realize that Connor's mom's inconsistency and lax parenting style probably doesn't help matters much. But we would like Connor to at least TRY everything on his plate. From what Scott and I remember, we always had to try foods when we were young.

Last night, we were fed up. We were eating hot dogs outside on the deck. On the side, we all had potato salad, and while Connor had a tablespoon of the salad, we also put chips on his plate. We knew that he would eat the chips with the hot dog.

As we ask, then barter, then debate, then BEG Connor to try a little tiny bit of potato salad, Scott is holding a small bit of the salad up to Connor's mouth. He kept telling us what he always says when he doesn't want to do something: "I hate that." Scott is getting frustrated, I am getting fed up, and Connor is getting upset.

And then, in the midst of our frustration, we did something that I'm not sure was the right thing to do: we forced the small bite of potato salad in Connor's mouth.

With his mouth wide open and the potato salad still sitting on his tongue, he howled and cried. But the potato salad didn't move from his tongue. We encouraged him to swallow it... it's good... he'll like it. But instead, he wiped the potato salad off of his tongue and onto the metal arm of the patio chair.

He cried, "I HATE POTATO SALAD!"

I told him, "You didn't even taste it. It probably just tasted like the dirty arm of the chair."

"Yes I DID taste it. And I HATE it."

So we asked him, "What did it taste like then?"

"It tasted like STUPID."