But, at 5 years of age, I realized his problem. He is a very control based person. He did not want anyone else controlling what he ate. So, I sat him down and told him that if there were 2 things on the table he did not like, he had to eat some of one of them. If three, some of 2 of them. It put the control over what went into his mouth into his hands. It stopped all the fuss.

But, I did (lol) open my big mouth and tell him that if Mommie’s did not like to eat something, they just didn’t cook it. So, I told him he could list one item that he would never have to eat. He looked at me and said, “I’s lergic to peas.” At 43, he tells me it may be a “mental” allergy, but it still applies.

But I knew we had raised a nice, polite child when he was a teen and we would go to friends houses and he would take some of everything and eat it – even something with peas in it. And, his tastes are very much broader now, even though he still loves his fries, macaroni & cheese, etc.
His learning to cook may be part of that solution.

I also agree with Johanna–my mom tried to make sure every meal had a vegetable, even on a limited budget supported by WIC and food pantries. But all vegetables were either canned or boiled (and sometimes coated in butter to help with the taste). Then I learned to cook and discovered how delicious vegetables can be. My roommate grew up in a similar vegetable situation and “hates” most vegetables. However, I can get her to eat and actually enjoy almost anything simply by a)cooking it an appropriate time for the type and b) including it with other ingredients/in a larger dish rather than serving it alone. It’s more work to make vegetables gross (boil alone for 10 minutes) than delicious (lightly pan-steam for 3 minutes and/or throw directly in the pot with everything else for the meal).

I love the idea of a “3 things I hate” list. I am a decidely not picky eater, but have major food aversions to tabasco sauce and undercooked eggs and straight-up hate black pepper. There are other things I prefer not to eat, but I can’t even choke one of those down to be polite.

Many people dislike compacts, though, for various reasons. If you want a high mileage mid-size car, a Prius is a good option I think. I know someone with a hybrid Camry that gets about 35mpg, and I personally can’t understand the purpose. I’d rather have either a much cheaper compact that gets the same mileage, or a Prius that gets better mileage.

Also, for people who only keep cars for a few years a hybrid probably doesn’t make a lot of sense. In your example, if you plan to sell the car after 4 years, the Fit is clearly a better solution.

I do question your numbers a bit regarding the cost. From what I just found you should be able to get a 2011 Prius for something like $6,000 – $7,000 more than a 2011 Fit, which changes the calculation significantly from the $14,600 additional cost you used in your calculations.

1. I have always found that all kids will eat *what they helped to prepare* – letting kids help in the kitchen (they seem to love to push the dough thru the pasta machine, or knead/beat on the bread dough, roll out meatballs or make strange-shaped meatloaves, spice and mix the sauces, make their own “special blend”salad dressing, make cakes, fabulous desserts, etc.) – we had one day a week – sometimes Saturday breakfast – when each kid chose the menu and made the meal – usually pancakes or waffles or scrambled eggs, but we could do whatever we wanted.

2. What’s wrong with letting each child have a 3-item list of “Things I hate and don’t have to eat” – the Rule might be that *once* a month you could remove ONE item from the list and add another. Personally, I hate any kind of liver and Brussel Sprouts leave me cold. And I’m a very adventurous eater otherwise. Good grief, everyone has something they don’t like.

I developed intersitial cysitis (painful bladder syndrome) a couple of years ago and symptoms of IC can be exacerbated by certain foods. Tomatoes happens to be a big trigger for me so I stay away from them.

What do you think?

I’m glad prodgod weighed in on this as well. My first reaction to this is that it makes no sense. If you have a very willful child like mine, then if you only serve them what we like, it WILL turn into an epic battle. I have chosen not to engage in the food wars. This is not to say that I let my kid eat whatever he wants. But he is not three yet, and frankly I don’t see the problem with letting him eat a grilled cheese on the night we would like to have curry or something that he would not like. We always offer him vegetables, and he almost always says no. And no, I don’t think I am setting my son up for a lifetime of problems. He sees us eat good things. I don’t think adults have a right to blame their parents for being picky. That is their fault.

I will not force feed my child and see no problem offering reasonable alternatives. My husband apparently spent most of his childhood eating cereal for dinner, and now he eats almost everything (onions and peppers notwithstanding). What you eat as a child will not shape your whole future. That’s bogus.

Q4 – I’ll weigh in on the picky-eaters debate. I am a very picky eater. As far as I’m concerned, though, this isn’t because my parents did a poor job raising me. In fact, I think my parents did a wonderful job, and am thankful they didn’t try to force me to eat things I do not like. Sure, being a picky eater presents some limitations for me, but its never been a problem. I have expanded my food choices a bit over the years, but will always be a very picky eater. I just don’t see a reason to try to force myself to eat things just because other people think I should.

My wife is also a picky eater. She does have some emotional problems related to food. Her step-father was one of those people who forced kids to eat things. For this reason, there are foods that she can’t even think about eating, and I suspect at times just seeing them causes a negative reaction. She has expressed interest in trying some new things, but just can’t seem to get over the negative emotions associated with them.

Q9 – I realize that this is a financial blog, which is why most things are discussed from that aspect. I just wanted to point out, though, that many people do not buy a Prius (or any other hybrid or alternative fuel car) just for the savings. In fact, I believe that if presented with two comparable vehicles, the best choice is the one which uses less gasoline, as long as the lifetime cost of that vehicle is no more than the lifetime cost of the other. Of course there are other variables to consider, but this is my view when fuel economy and cost are the only differences.

Gas prices in Canada are about 50 to 100% more expensive than U.S. prices, depending on the current exchange rate. And the government incentives were lower when we bought the car. At that time, gas was at least 20% cheaper than it is now, and we estimated that gas savings at those prices would pay the additional cost of the car compared to a conventional Honda or Toyota within 5 years. Since then, gas has increased by 20 to 40% or more, depending on the week, further shortening the payback period.

The larger question is one I discovered when vacationing in France a couple weeks ago: we drove a Citroen clean-diesel that — if the consumption gauge was correct — was consistently getting 60 mpg. So why don’t we have these cars here in North America? Are the automakers really that stupid?

Subconciously, you are not liking something becuase it’s not good for you.

Yet sometimes I wonder if we just expect too much of our kids. Several readers commented on how pickiness doesn’t exist where poverty is present. However most often variety doesn’t exist either. Third world parents don’t feed their children Pad-Thai on Monday, Tacos on Tuesday, Sushi on Wednesday, Curry Shrimp on Thursday and Lasagna on Friday. This is a wide variety of flavors to become familiar with.

Science is also pondering whether pickiness might be related to the “taster/non taster gene” (both my boys did this experiment on the family in jr. high) which might then make pickiness somewhat hereditary and possibly more out of our control that we realize.