Of course, part of the challenge is to teach them to make wise choices while eating out too. Following a day steeped in UAE bureaucracy at it's best, I couldn't face cooking this evening so off we headed for the food court. Al Hamra food court is a large and bleak affair, frequented by few customers but with a large community of staff who seem to be there purely to sit back and watch the pantomime which is our family, whenever we visit.
Without discussion, the children will always opt for New York Fries with hot dogs. Today I explained that while we were going to food court, we were going to eat something completely different to usual. Apart from nine year old girl who, predictably, threw a strop and announced she wasn't eating at all, the boys took this news with good grace and agreed that they would order something that came with rice.
Resistant nine year old girl ordered sweet and sour chicken with rice and the boys ordered butter chicken and a little side salad. I didn't hold out much hope for the side salad but with great aplomb, they made a good stab at eating it and when I asked eight year old boy if his food was nice he announced 'no mum, not nice, but excellent!' which made me very happy. He then went on to add 'I know why we have to do this, it's because of Australia, isn't it?"
I suddenly remembered a little fib I'd told him a week or so ago about how, if we wanted to move to Australia (which we do), we would all have to pass a test in manners and eating habits. I told him that because Australia had been originally populated by prisoners, they had become sniffy about who moved there these days and so insisted that only the very best people were allowed in. I elaborated by telling him that once you arrived at the airport, you were taken into a room where you had to eat in front of an examiner who would decide your fate. You left by one of two doors: Red door, FAIL, and you were sent back on the next available flight: Green door, PASS, welcome to Australia!
I'll say anything to get them to behave.
Anyway, they did a pretty good job at eating all this, four year old boy (the one who used to have a bottle of milk for dinner) even asked for more rice!
I'm pretty happy with how this is all going so far and my only regret is that I left it so long to tackle what was obviously a growing problem years ago.
Without discussion, the children will always opt for New York Fries with hot dogs. Today I explained that while we were going to food court, we were going to eat something completely different to usual. Apart from nine year old girl who, predictably, threw a strop and announced she wasn't eating at all, the boys took this news with good grace and agreed that they would order something that came with rice.
Resistant nine year old girl ordered sweet and sour chicken with rice and the boys ordered butter chicken and a little side salad. I didn't hold out much hope for the side salad but with great aplomb, they made a good stab at eating it and when I asked eight year old boy if his food was nice he announced 'no mum, not nice, but excellent!' which made me very happy. He then went on to add 'I know why we have to do this, it's because of Australia, isn't it?"
I suddenly remembered a little fib I'd told him a week or so ago about how, if we wanted to move to Australia (which we do), we would all have to pass a test in manners and eating habits. I told him that because Australia had been originally populated by prisoners, they had become sniffy about who moved there these days and so insisted that only the very best people were allowed in. I elaborated by telling him that once you arrived at the airport, you were taken into a room where you had to eat in front of an examiner who would decide your fate. You left by one of two doors: Red door, FAIL, and you were sent back on the next available flight: Green door, PASS, welcome to Australia!
I'll say anything to get them to behave.
Anyway, they did a pretty good job at eating all this, four year old boy (the one who used to have a bottle of milk for dinner) even asked for more rice!
I'm pretty happy with how this is all going so far and my only regret is that I left it so long to tackle what was obviously a growing problem years ago.
