Family dinner time is supposed to be a special time, right?  Yea, well, it doesn’t feel too special when the kids can’t stop commenting on how gross the food is.  It’s especially fun when their is a lot of whooping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.  No amount of bribing and reasoning can get my kids to eat.  They will gag and cry and go on and on about how this is the worst day of their life.  It doesn’t matter how much time I spent making the meal.  It doesn’t matter if they have had it before.  It doesn’t matter if it only contains things that they like.  There is a predestined order to the universe that tells children to dislike any food placed before them.  Unless of course it’s candy; they’ll eat that without complaint.  I just can’t bring myself to serve that for dinner.

Well, one day, as I was wrestling with my toddler to take just one, itsy, tiny bite, my husband says to my toddler, “Do you want to play a game?”  Instant quiet.  Tears stopped.  Full attention.  Head nods.

Geesh.  I just spent twenty minutes trying to get this kid to eat and just like that my husband has him practically lick the plate clean.  Really?  Really?   I give up.  Sometimes I hate when daddy knows best.

It’s his job to make the kids eat now.  As we have added more kids and kids grew, he added more games.  They still work, just like that first time.  The older kids still play.  And just because I like you and care about your sanity, I’m going to give you a list of our top ten favorite dinner games.  Pretty soon, your toddler will be eating out of your hands too.

1.  Magic Fork.  Every fork is magic.  Especially when it is loaded and daddy closes his eyes.  That’s it.  Load the fork, close your eyes, and see if the fork has somehow become magic and makes the food disappear.  Your kid will get a kick out of fooling you.
2. Don’t eat me.  Every time your kid takes a bite, a piece of you disappears in a shirt or behind mommy.  My husband even sticks his whole head in his shirt as the kids are getting more and more into the game.  Of course, once they have eaten you bite by bite, they have to restore you bite by bite.  You can get a lot of bites that way.
3. Go fish.  Let him get off his seat and hide under the table.  Daddy holds the fork over the edge to see if any fish are biting.  They are.
4. Run and touch.  One of my kids couldn’t sit still to save his life, so the run and touch something and come back for a bite game was invented.  It helps toddlers with vocabulary like washing machine too.  Just pick random things around the house for them to run and touch and then come back for a bite.  They love it.  It makes them tired.  It makes them eat.  Win. Win.
5. Rock, paper, scissors.  Everyone knows how to play this game.  Play rock paper scissors and whoever loses the round has to take a bite.  Sometimes my husband says, you won so take a bite.  It works.  They don’t really care if they win or lose to take a bite, they just like to play the game.
6. Basic math.  As your child gets older, they can start practicing their basic math facts by a variation on the rock paper scissors game.  Instead of showing a rock or paper, have your kid hold up some of their fingers.  You also hold up a few fingers.  Whoever can add them the fastest, wins.  The loser has to take a bite.  If they really hate eating, they get really fast at math facts.  Still a win.
7. Execution line.  Line up the bites on the table and give every food item a name of someone in the family.  Look away.  When a family member disappears, guess which one got executed first.  They love to trick you.
8. Eat like an animal.  If your kid loves to pretend to be an animal, what better time than meal time.  Can they take a bite like a dinosaur?  How would a cat take a bite?  I always knew I lived in a zoo.
9. Guess what’s missing.  If your kid needs help eating more than one item, close your eyes while they take a bite and see if you can figure out which food went missing.  If you can figure that out pretty well, try guessing how many bites of each thing they took.  They will fool you with extra bites, guaranteed.
10. Bite story.  If your kids love stories, they will love this game.  Start a fun story about anything, then just when things get exciting, stop and make them take a bite to continue.  “The wolf huffed and puffed and… oh you need to take a bite to find out what happened.”  They won’t want to be left hanging and you can get some kindergarten homework done at the same time.

My kids still like to play these games with each other even if they are old enough to eat without convincing.  The older ones will even help the younger ones so that I can have an actual conversation with my hubby at the dinner table.  The struggle remains real.  Every toddler we raise has to be taught to eat a variety of foods.  But hey, at least the fight is a fun memory instead of a tearful one.  I would call that success!