Day 4: Ordering-in and nine year old girl's struggle for power

So today we faced another out-of-the-ordinary meal since I'm going out for the night (who doesn't know this at this stage??) and didn't want to cook, so we ordered-in.

I ordered spaghetti bolognaise for the kids, from a lebenese/Italian (?) place in the mall.  Don't get me wrong, it's not like they've never eaten spag bol, it's just that normally when we order-in we order pizza.  The boys were happy enough although nine year old girl complained that it wasn't pizza.  Innately truculent, it's not so much the food of the new regime that she objects to, but rather the power that I've retrieved.  Being the only two women in the house there is a constant power struggle between us and often she wins.  In this instant I've said 'I don't care if you don't like what I'm feeding you, I won't give in'. This is causing problems.

I set the pattern early, I see that now.  As a baby I had plans to feed her organic spinach and bottle-fed spring lamb, strawberries from the garden and organic yoghurt.  Of course, once I landed back down on earth I realised that what was on offer was cow&gate baby jars, which seemed just as good.  However, heating up a jar of Lancashire-hot-pot, I found myself gagging at the smell.  As I attempted to feed her it quickly became apparent she felt the same way and spat it right back at me.

I tried various other flavours, parsnip, carrot, potato and leek, but with the same result until I gave in and fed her what she preferred: Petit filous and apple puree.  And that's how it's continued.

Tomorrow I shall be tracking down some healthy snack foods to replace the mandatory cheetos or kit kats they ask for while out (and to clarify, I don't keep crisps, sweets or fizzy drinks in the house, but they have these things when we go out all the time -- it's often a matter of trying to pacify them in the supermarket queue  where I'm constantly asked 'mum, can I have this?')

Oh, and the weetabix went down well again this morning and they all ate their lunches no problem.  I'm beginning to feel I just wasn't trying hard enough up to this point -- like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, the answer was in my own back yard all along, I just didn't know where to look (you get the analogy, right?)!

Day 4: Tackling the lunch boxes one box at a time...

So today I decided to take one step towards tackling the school lunch boxes.

I live with the daily fear of Jamie Oliver deciding to arrive to the UAE, camera crew in tow, to tackle the eating habits of the kids here.  They would descend on RAKESS and sniff out six year old boy immediately as he sat forlornly, Toy story lunch box open, revealing its pathetic and nutritonally barren contents and lambast me as the worst mother in the UAE.

To be honest, he generally has the best lunch since he is willing to eat a peanut butter sandwich: Eight year old boys lunch-box contains precisely two chocolate brioche, two flavoured milks, two fruit juices and one packet of Walkers Sun bites wholegrain snacks (a stab at being healthy).  Nine year old girl's is similar without the flavoured milk.

In other words, crap.  So today we started tentative steps in improving lunchtime in the guise of a fresh floury roll with wafer thin turkey ham and butter.

The most surprising thing about this experiment so far is the ease with which the boys have taken to the new diet.  Considering how inflexible they've been in the past, it's amazing how keen they are to change, once we've established that this is an adventure into food (and a means of getting to Australia!)

Over breakfast I gave them a progress update report and informed them that soon we would be tackling regular snacks -- instead of chocolate and crisps as a treat, we're going to try new fruits and dried fruits such as banana chips: 'Ooh, I think I'll like those' piped up eight year old boy, 'Euwww' grimaced nine year old girl.