What do your weekly meals look like for you and your fam? I generally enjoy cooking, what I don't enjoy is the negotiations that come with cooking, and with kids, it's even worse. I'm also the kind of person that could eat the same 5 dishes for a year without much fuss or question. That's the ADHD lodged in my brain for you.

The negotiation, or even the anticipation of negotiations, makes me agitated. If I could, I'd be a food dictator, but that's not how living with people works. It's annoying enough to me that I often push it to the back of my mind and just "figure it out" on the fly. That's not conducive to making good choices, though, only convenient choices.

If I'm going to do most of the cooking, I'll want a schedule of meals, so I can both plan, anticipate, and head-off any objections. I struggle with being assertive on this point, and I'm told often, "We don't need to do that much planning." Which, as someone with ADHD into my late 30s, I know is not true, and I do need that much planning if not more. Structure is something I need, and the kids at this age obviously thrive off structure as well.

So anyway, how do you tackle this? I need to get this sorted out for myself, but also for my kiddos. Kiddo 1 just had an annual checkup and is low on iron, and is growing increasingly picky about food. Kiddo 2 is still in that "I'll try anything in front of me." phase, and getting this sorted out now hopefully means I can avoid the pickiness down the line.

I'm going to cross post this in !neurodiverse@hexbear.net & !food@hexbear.net as I think it has some clear overlap.

  • PKMKII [none/use name]
    ·
    2 months ago

    It’s helpful to have a “rotation” of dishes that everyone is more or less on board with and cover the essential nutritional needs. Just large enough to give variety but not so large as to be unwieldy. Making enough to have leftovers for another night helps bring the planning stress down.

    With picky eaters, you can’t give in to their demands, they eat what everyone else eats. However, I find that a little negotiation/bargaining helps them feel like they’re getting a win while they’re still eating what you give them. My kid the other day was like, I’ll eat the inner bits of the Brussels sprouts but I don’t like the outer bits. So, fine, they eat what was like 90% of the veggies and then there’s a small handful of outer leaves left.