"Dinner ideas needed that my family will eat too!"

You know, there is a vast acreage of land between "eat what I serve or go hungry" and "I eat healthy, but feed my kids junk". It doesn't have to be one or the other.


There are foods I don't like. There are times I plan on having spaghetti for dinner and then get home and think "gee, I am really not in the mood for spaghetti tonight." I don't see why my kids can't have their own preferences. I make a healthy dinner for the family, but the kids are always welcome to fruit and yogurt or a snack plate of crackers, fruit, and cheese if they aren't enthused about what I prepared. It takes about 30 seconds to serve them that alternative. I don't think I am spoiling them or ruining them by refusing to make dinner time a battleground. Quite the opposite, I suspect.

I can't stand the 'eat what I serve or go hungry' line.


I cook a healthy dinner for my family, but I certainly don't expect them to cram it down their throats if it doesn't appeal to them. My kids know they if they don't like what I cooked, they are welcome to go make a bowl of fruit or some crackers/pb or make a sandwich for themselves. My son is a vegetarian...so in your eyes I'm supposed to shovel a chunk of meat on his plate and expect him to eat it or go hungry? Why would I do that? It's his choice to not eat meat, and I'm certainly not going to starve him because of that. I have three kids (and one husband), and the odds of all four of them actually liking the meal I prepare are slim. Do I take offense? No, I just point to the fridge and tell them to grab some fruit. I don't like my kids going to bed hungry. That, to me, is not healthy.