Yeah, That's The Ticket!

Logan and Ellis have always been pretty good eaters. Aside from a period of time where Logan suffered an easily triggered gag reflex, I haven't had to worry too much about their nutrition. As long as the food isn't too spicy or too mushy we are in business and Sir Gags-a-Lot hasn't made an appearance in quite some time.

However, because there are developmental stages in a child's life where she chooses to exercise her "power muscle" I have set up a boundary for dinner and dessert that eliminates any arguments over food: The Dessert Ticket.

For Logan, dessert is her sole purpose for living. She looks forward to dessert the second she gets up in the morning the second she finishes her dessert from the night before. Because she will fill herself up on bread and then fail to get any vegetable or protein in her growing body, I determine a "Dessert Ticket" for each meal and then leave it up to the girls to decide if it's worth it to them.

Tonight we had spagetti & meatballs, vegetables and french bread. Logan asked what the Dessert Ticket was. Before I could tell her, Ellis said, "How about all of the vegetables. That's a good idea." Agreed. The vegetables would be the ticket tonight.

Not 10 seconds later, she had changed her mind. That was no longer a good idea. In fact it "didn't make any sense" to Ellis. She made tearful statements like "This isn't a good idea. It's not a good idea at all. It's a bad idea. A very bad idea." While I didn't capture the majority of her adorable and heart breaking melt down at the table, this is the tail end where she asserts that this is no longer a good idea at all.

Click to watch the video:

The Dessert Ticket Video