More Cookies...

Every Sunday the family joins together at Grandma Fotheringham's house for dinner.  The cousins are delighted at the opportunity to play together and are less than stellar in their actual eating of dinner.  It is a constant battle we've been dealing with for years now.  On the drive home from Grandma's there is a chorus of, "I'm hungry!" heard from the three boys in the back seat.  Then there is a reply in unison from the 2 parents in the front seat, "We just  had dinner!  If you didn't eat, it's your fault.  There is no food until breakfast."  Depending on the week, some times there is much weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth.  When will they ever get it?  Week after week...

Grandpa is such a fun grandpa- all the kids love him.

The other battle waged concerns dessert.  The standing rule, if you don't eat your dinner, no dessert.  Easy to implement at home, more difficult at Grandma's.  Grandma states it is her house and her dinner, so if the grand kids want to have dessert, she should be able to give it to them.  Last week her argument was, "They are oatmeal cookies.  They do have oatmeal in them!"  When I started to explain, AGAIN, why the kids need to eat their dinner and not be given dessert because we want to get them home and right to bed- not make another meal for them, Grandma put her foot down and said, "The kids can have a cookie at Grandma's house!"  I said, "But I can't stand to get home at bedtime and having them crying and begging for food!"  Grandpa had the best solution to it all, "Well, tell them to eat more cookies next time."