How to get children to eat their food: 01 (London)

Dinner trick I played on the boys (James, aged 7, and William, 4.5) I was childminding last night:

Asked them around 5pm if their dinner time was the same as term time (5:30pm).  They said they weren’t hungry (I’d given them apple around 4pm). I said maybe dinner around 6.  James said he wasn’t hungry at all.  William echoed it.

At 5:30, I asked again, got the same answer, so I said I was going ahead and eating without them.

When I went back into the living room with my food, saying what a good cook daddy was and how yummy the food was, they changed their minds immediately. 

Not only that, they then asked for a second helping — same amount as the first, they said!

When they started to lose interest half way through the second helping, I said they shouldn’t have asked for a full second helping, that I shouldn’t have believed them, that I wouldn’t make the mistake of believing them again, that they should stick to their word, that trust is important.  

James the negotiator then backtracked and said he would eat it, but later.

When William wanted me to play ball, I said, “Food first, then I’ll play ball.”  

This way, I managed to get them to finish their food, feeding them spoonful by spoonful.

(London, 2022)

See also:  https://piccola-chinita.blogspot.com/2011/10/trick-or-treat.html