Heather says:
It may come as a shock to some of my readers, but I don’t have a whole lot of patience for general pickiness when it comes to meal time. I do not go out of my way to torture my family members, but let’s face it, you can’t please everyone all of the time. Playing “short order cook,” in my experience encourages finicky behavior.
When a recipe is first reviewed by the unwashed masses family, we discuss what would improve the meal. No one is allowed to simply grimace and say “I don’t like it.” However, the more articulate ones are encouraged to say, “I would like this better without this” or “This would be great if it had this.” By encouraging specific criticisms as well as positive feedback we learn more about each others’ palates and are less likely to write off entire food groups, while improving many recipes.
A good recipe is like pure gold . 🙂
Oh how I wish things could work this way in our household. But when your child has Sensory Integration Disorder, it is unfortunately not that simple.
She would rather starve than put something in her mouth she is afraid of. She can’t tell you why (most of the time), but she knows she will not eat it.
But I am (I hope) in a less common situation, and it is certainly a good way to open communication and find things that everybody likes.
Heh, have you seen my food blog?
I sometimes welcome criticism. I don’t like backseat drivers, however. My incredibly picky husband loves nothing more than to polish off some delicious and well prepared meal and then deliver some “constructive criticism.” If it is a new dish, I can welcome it, especially if it is a considered comment. If it is some obligatory “next time you should try…” on a perfectly fine dish, which comes up way too often for my taste, I usually don’t take it as gracefully.
Jay, I am referring to ordinary, run of the mill, far too often condoned pickiness.
Hilary that would grate on my nerves, as well. With my stepdaughter it’s a way for her to begin to articulate her tastes. Before she used to write off entire food groups. I don’t like “sauce.” I’m sorry, but that is entirely too broad of a brush to paint with. Since then we’ve discovered that there are very few sauces she doesn’t like and most of those weren’t homemade anyhow. I can accept her not caring for Carolina BBQ based on not liking mustard. That makes sense, but to write off all “wet” foods without having SID is patently ridiculous.