Every mom I know wages an age-old battle each evening. During the magical hour just before dinnertime, our children transform into crazy little beings who cry for no reason, start fights with one another, and decide the moment mommy is working with a pot of boiling water on the stove is when they MUST be picked up!
Our battle always occurs as I’m trying to cook dinner. All three kids have their moments. Right now, my youngest (3 years old) is having his. Every evening around 5 p.m. he just loses it. I’m usually starting dinner because my husband comes home around 5:45/6, and we like to eat soon after that.
That’s when my little guy starts hitting his sisters, using everything in sight as a weapon and just in general crying about everything, including the fact that I won’t pick him up while he hangs on to my leg as I drag him around the kitchen.
It’s gotten to the point that I am debating going to an all crock-pot menu so I can completely avoid this time of day! 🙂
My girls went through the same thing, but their meltdowns weren’t nearly as bad. And they didn’t usually resort to beating one another up. It was just a lot of crying.
I have been at a loss for quite some time, but then recently something came back to me that a dear friend told me years ago. I had completely forgotten about it because I hadn’t needed this advice in a while.
I started doing this thing around 5 p.m. that halts any tantrums right before they start (or halts them in progress if I’m a few minutes late).
What is this magical solution?
It’s so simple I really wish I could take credit for it, but I can’t.
Serve the fruit or vegetable portion of their dinner early.
Before you discount me as crazy, hear me out. When I first heard this advice, I thought, “I can’t do that; I’ll ruin their dinner.”
But the more I thought about it, it made sense to me. I wouldn’t be giving him an unhealthy snack that would be eaten instead of his dinner. I would be giving him a healthy part of his normal dinner. A small amount that wouldn’t fill him up, just calm him down.
My friend explained that if a child is hungry (like those Snickers commercials!), they’re not themselves and making them wait until dinnertime to eat is a good lesson to learn BUT not at the expense of your sanity. {Come to think of it, I think they need to make a TODDLER VERSION of that commercial! It would be epic.}
Giving them a portion of the dinner you were already going to feed them won’t ruin their dinner. It will just change the order in which it is eaten.
All it takes is a little planning ahead, and it works like a charm. As soon as my little guy eats a few bites of his fruit, his blood sugar is restored to normal levels, and he then starts acting like a rational (as much as possible for a 3-year-old) human being who doesn’t want to wreak havoc on his sisters.
And the time needed to eat that pre-dinner serving? It usually buys me enough time to cook dinner in peace and handle all the hot ovens and boiling pots of water I want without a toddler going bonkers at my heels.
I know this trick works on all kids because I saw it with my friend’s 4 children and then with my own 3.
If you give this trick a try, let me know how it goes! Good luck!!
p.s. You could totally do this with veggies instead of fruit like I did. I just chose fruit because my little guy loves all kinds of fruit and is hot & cold on veggies. I’m not about to wage the veggie war at a time like this! But if you have a veggie lover on your hands (like my nephew, who could survive on celery and cucumbers, go for it!
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Valerie says
This definitely works! I use it with my 1.5 yr old, and have been doing so since shortly after he started eating table foods. The only other solution is to prep and eat dinner early, and that throws off everything else! I hope everyone tries this if they’re having this issue, bc it’s such a simple solution. I also imagine that as he gets older, he’ll help me prep the fruits and veggies that he eats early, further involving him and keeping his attention and sanity (his and mine?) in line even more.
Lena Gott says
Yes! When my kids say they’re starving and I offer them a fruit or vegetable, they will sometimes be magically “unstarving” LOL.
Either way, I win. 😀