It's Alive!!!

The Polynesian Princess had been crying for about 15 minutes.  Why was she crying? you ask.  Well, she was crying because I was making her eat her lunch.  For afternoon tea.

The sushi balls that she requested that week were still sitting resplendent in the silicone cupcake holders (see photo above).  That was the second day in a row.  She had the gall to say "if you'd made me a hamburger I would have eaten it".  Whaaaaat?!  A hamburger!  "If you can't even eat two balls of rice, what makes you think you could eat a whole burger?!"  And there's me - a 38 year-old trying to reason with a five year-old.  Who's the infantile one here...

She sat on our front step, sobbing while she ate this sushi that she had asked for.  And I stood in the kitchen wondering what the hell have I created?  I’ve created a monster because sure as she’s sitting there all entitled and stuff, I’m the one who made her like that.

When I was in school, my lunch was sometimes a vegemite, cheese & lettuce sandwich, or devon with tomato sauce.  Just delicious after a few hours of sitting in a stinking hot bag in the middle of a sweaty Queensland summer.  Yummo!

I didn’t enjoy those sandwiches.  I quite liked my ham with corn relish sandwiches (still do – thanks Mum) or corned beef with relish.  But vegemite, cheese and lettuce?  I don’t know who came up with that combination, but picking it out from the roof of my mouth occupied a good part of my lunch break.

So my question is: does the Polynesian Princess view these sushi balls the same way I viewed those vegemite sandwiches?  Although, how could she, given she’s actually asking for the damn things?!  This thought annoys me because of the amount of time and effort that goes into the sushi.  I may as well just give her a vegemite sandwich and make less effort!  The result is still the same.

What do you do?  Do you make what she asks and know there's a good chance she'll eat?  Or do I make what I want and take a chance she won't eat?  The tough side of me (the one that sounds like my own mother) says “give her what you want – if she’s hungry, she’ll eat”.

And that’s exactly what I’m going to do.  Now to find the recipe for mini-hamburgers.  I'm kidding!

Kind of.

The Architect says to me “did you get to request what you wanted for lunch when YOU were a kid?”  Ummmm…no.  I didn’t.

Did you?