The Art of Negotiation

If you have been following along for a while now, you probably know that Autumn is a very picky eater. Very. Picky. Unless you consider Fruit Loops or Goldfish a meal.

So needless to say, meal times can be trying in our household. When Autumn was younger, I got creative and found ways to "trick" her into eating the things I wanted her to eat. You know, the old "bait and switch", putting something that she wants on the spoon and letting her have a taste, only to switch it to carrots with the next bite. Unfortunatly, Autumn caught on quickly, and this process was short lived.

With an extremely aware and assertive two year old, there is no chance of "tricking" her into eating anything she doesn't want to eat. And at the moment she doesn't want to eat anything with any real nutritional value, for the most part.

I have tried everything I can think of. So the other night, I decided to try a different approach. I decided to haggle with my two year old.

Me: "Autumn get in your seat, it's time for dinner."
Autumn: "I want popcorn!"
Me: "No, we are having spaghetti and garlic bread"
Autumn: "Popcorn!" (Smiling, because now we are playing a game)
Me: "Autumn, you can have a little popcorn with your spaghetti and bread"
Autumn: "Popcorn!"
Me: (Trying not to laugh, because she really is so darn cute) "Popcorn AND spaghetti AND bread"
Autumn: (Yells) "Popcorn!" (Whispers) "and sketti and bweed"

While negotiating with my daughter over the dinner menu may not be the best approach, I did get her to eat some of what I wanted her to eat, while letting her eat some of what she wanted. I call that a small victory!