This month I talked about sending kids to bed without dinner and it seems most parents agree with me on that one. Let’s take this a step further though – what about no dessert as a ‘punishment’ for not eating dinner? My kids LOVE dessert time and we only have dessert time when we eat at my mom’s, which is usually once a week. She always tries to make something they like and then have a dessert they love. However, there are those occasions where someone doesn’t want to eat their dinner, but low and behold, they sure have room for dessert! My response to this? “How do you have room in your tiny belly for dessert if you’re already so full from what you barely ate for dinner?” I mean, seriously, I do not understand that.
Of course, I know it is simply because they would rather have dessert than eat their entire dinner. Regardless, I don’t allow them to pick at dinner and gorge themselves on dessert. In fact, they don’t get dessert at all. So is this mean? To have a child sit at the table and watch everyone else eat something yummy, while they may not? I look at it this way – this is completely under their control. All they need to do is eat a decent meal. If they do not, the consequence is no secret. I don’t feel I’m being purposely mean but apparently this bothers some people.
So what is your take on it? Is this something that should be handled differently? I was told it is not nice to make them sit at the table during dessert time, that they should be allowed to leave so they don’t have to sit and watch others eat. That kinda defeats the purpose of the point though, does it not?
