Once upon a time...

There was a very very strong-willed little boy. That little boy did NOT like to eat his veggies. But more than anything else, he did NOT like to be told what to do.

This little boy sat down to eat dinner with his family one night and, as usual, refused to eat what was in front of him (except for his strawberries, of course, because this little boy loves his strawberries). Frustrated that he rarely ate dinner and never ate his veggies, his parents came up with a brilliant new rule for their strong-willed little boy. He had to take one bite of each thing on this plate before he could get up from the table.

The little boy's parents informed the little boy of the new rule and he made known he didn't like this rule very much. When the family was done eating dinner, the little boy had still not touched his macaroni & cheese, "chicken" (salmon croquet- i.e. fish pucks in our house), and broccoli (with cheese sauce). So, his parents reminded him that he had to eat one bite of each thing on his plate. To make it simpler, they put one bite of each on his placemat and cleared his plate.

At first, the parents thought he would give in right away, eat the 3 bites, and go on to get his bath. The little boy had other plans in mind.

The little boy's bedtime came and went and he continued to sit at the table, alone, with his 3 bites in front of him. After sitting at the table for about 2 hours, and with much urging from his mom, the little boy complied and ate his "chicken" and macaroni.

"Oh, was that yummy?" The mom asked
"Oh YES! Thats so yummy!" the little boy said
"would you like more?" the mom asked
"NO." Insisted the little boy

At this point, the little boy, still refusing to eat his little bitty tiny bite of cold broccoli, got clever. He insisted that he needed to go potty. His parents took him to the potty and then put him back in his chair. That did not go as he had planned. Then, the little boy insisted that he had had an accident so he needed to get up. He hadn't so he continued to sit.

About this time, the little boy told his parents that he was very tired and really just wanted to go to bed but his parents had made this brilliant rule after all and had to stick to it so they insisted that he eat his broccoli.

The little boy sat in the kitchen by himself for another 30 or so minutes and then his mom came in pleading with him to just eat the broccoli. He thought long and hard and knew that he wasn't going to get out of it so he put the broccoli in his mouth, gagged, and spit it out on his mom. She wasn't too thrilled about that so made him take another bite and told him to swallow. He finally swallowed after holding the broccoli in his mouth for 15 minutes.

The tired strong-willed boy fell asleep faster than his parents had ever seen. It was, after all, well over an hour past his bedtime by now.

Oh that strong-willed little boy, how his parents love him so. Even if he makes them want to pull their hair out.

PS- the parents aren't sure how long their "brilliant" rule will stick around :)