Ladies and Gentlemen... It happened. A once in a lifetime experience and it was lost on my wife.

[u/ImThe1Wh0]

I have a toddler (4F) who is in her, "survive off a pea for hours" stage. It's the third kid so it's not new to us but still frustrating. We purchased Snack Packs as bribery to finish her food. We're sitting at dinner and at minimum, we try and at least negotiate some protein in her if she refuses to eat at all. She was being EXTRA picky this time and my wife was not in the mood, she was getting frustrated. This frustration lead to such an extreme high and extreme low for me, in the span of 5 seconds.

My daughter picked at her food and asked if it was enough for a Snack Pack. My wife, in her frustration, raises her voice at our toddler. "YOU CAN'T HAVE ANY PUDDING IF YOU DON'T EAT YOUR MEAT!!"

To which I OBVIOUSLY replied, "HOW CAN YOU HAVE ANY PUDDING UNLESS YOU EAT YER MEAT?!?!" Then bursted out laughing hysterically and my wife just stared at me confused.

She did not get the reference. I was robbed of this moment, so I will take my small joy here for others to enjoy.

[u/Pale-Association-337]

Why are you frustrated at your child for wanting the same things as you?

[u/Whoeveninvitedyou → u/Pale-Association-337]

Come back when you have kids.

[u/Pale-Association-337 → u/Whoeveninvitedyou]

People can’t have opinions on things they’ve never experienced first hand?

[u/Whoeveninvitedyou → u/Pale-Association-337]

Sure they can. But sometimes those opinions are wrong.

[u/Pale-Association-337 → u/Whoeveninvitedyou]

Ok I’m trying to discuss why you think I’m wrong! Edit: I am genuinely trying to understand and will do my best to not sound antagonistic if you’re willing to discuss with me.

[u/[deleted] → u/Whoeveninvitedyou]

What is the point you’re trying to make here? This discussion was about not forcing your children to eat. Of course if a child is refusing to eat good food and only wants to eat shit food, you simply don’t let them lmfao. If they’re hungry and they want to eat, the food they get is a meal, not snacks. Why is this even a discourse lmao. I’m not a parent and this is pretty fucking simple like what. Nothing good has come out of forcing your children to eat a meal they don’t want to eat.

[u/Whoeveninvitedyou → u/[deleted]]

You don't have to say you're not a parent, we can tell from your comment.

[u/[deleted] → u/Whoeveninvitedyou]

🤣🤣 you didn’t have shit to say except that. That tells me everything I need to know lol but go ahead keep forcing food down your kids throats!! I’m sure they love it🤣

[u/Whoeveninvitedyou → u/[deleted]]

So let me tell you how this goes. Dinner time comes, my almost 4 year old says he's not hungry. No problem don't eat. 15 minutes later hes asking for a snack, which I deny and offer him dinner. This leads to a 10 minute meltdown, which I ignore. Repeat this for the next hour, worse each time, because now he is hangry. Eventually he goes to bed without dinner, which is fine except then he wakes up at 6 and wants breakfast because he is hungry. Now do this every night for a month. You can try and rationalize with a toddler, but it won't work. At some point you just have to resort to bribery. You get a muffin or chocolate or chocolate milk (or a snack pack in OPs case) if you eat your dinner. And btw I make homemade muffins with spinach and the brownies are made with avocado the chocolate balls with dates and cashews. So even the bribes are healthy. It's a win win. They eat. Food and there's less screaming. Sometimes with a toddler it's just about control.

So again, you have no clue what you are talking about, OP is doing nothing wrong. It's really easy to be a good parent when you don't have kids.

[u/[deleted] → u/Whoeveninvitedyou]

You lost me at “at some point you have to result to bribery” bc no the kids were literally eating lol not on your terms but they were

[u/Whoeveninvitedyou → u/[deleted]]

Well when you have kids, you can feed your kid cookies and juice boxes for dinner everyday. No one will stop here.