Five Whole Minutes
I have my own (minor) issues around food, and I watch myself with some (minor) dread and fascination as, in the early morning breakfast hours, I find myself clenching my jaw and wanting to insist, dammit, that Piper have Just One Bite of the cheesy-eggs I spent 5 whole minutes making for her. Piper, meanwhile, clenches her jaw and whips her head around and insists that she will not have even one bite of cheesy-eggs, but will have only the steel-cut oatmeal and molasses and yogurt that I made for her yesterday.
I really, really need to nip my own reaction in the bud, here. It’s way too easy for me to get caught in the minutiae of a single meal, instead of backing off and remembering: we offer her a wide variety of (mostly) healthy foods, and she picks and chooses and doesn’t ever go hungry. And if she doesn’t eat food X today, she might tomorrow (and, gallingly, vice versa).
Control issues around food: never a good idea.