I cannot stress that first sentence enough so let me repeat myself.
Meals are important to me.
Elijah and I have always spent a lot of time (and money) on eating. We try new restaurants, grill out, find new recipes for both special occasions and every day meals, or just pick up take-out. We love food. Eating a good meal together is more than just physically satisfying. In fact, it's been a running theme of our relationship. For the past twelve years we've been sharing wonderful meals together. And our best dates always include great food and conversation whether alone or with friends.
We have always eaten dinner together nightly. We'll open a bottle of wine, spend the evening in the kitchen then clean up together. After a long day, it's comforting to sit down at the table and break bread with the one you love.
Then we had kids.
At first, with Asher, we'd feed him and put him to bed before we had dinner together. We've always put the kids to bed pretty early so it wasn't a big deal to eat an hour or so after that. Now however, we're wanting to have family dinners. We want our kids to join in the experience; discuss the good and bad parts of our days, plan for the future, learn more about each other. The problem, however, is...the food.
They hate everything I make. Amelia's only two so she sort of gets a pass to run around the table half naked refusing or begging for bites from our plates. But Asher, Oh-Em-Ge, he is going to be the undoing of my sanity.
Every week, when I make the grocery list, I ask everyone what they'd like for dinner. Asher gets a say, just like everyone else. Unfortunately, on the day that I make whatever he's chosen, he may just decide that he doesn't want, or even like, the meal. One day his favorite meal is ribs and the next day he doesn't want anything to do with it.
The point is, it's making me crazy. And the arguments had gotten so bad that I've now started a cooking boycott. I'm not cooking for the family anymore. I'm tired of the stress the complaining, the whining, the screaming, the crying. Elijah thinks that I should just "not care" but that's not really something that I can do. I HATE to cook. So when I spend all this time in the kitchen, only to hear people bitch about it, it pisses me off.
There is no way to sugar coat it. I'm mad that my children have ruined the best part of my day. I've had extensive conversations with both Asher and Elijah and have reached the conclusion that they need to figure out something that works. Until then, the kitchen is closed. I'm not so much as heating up a pizza for any one*.
*Of course, I'm still feeding Amelia but since she will only eat oatmeal, cereal and milk, it's not that big of a deal.
