Carrots at Bedtime

Eating is a random event at our house.  In other words, our children are hungry at random times.  Amaizingly these bouts of hunger never seem to occur at lunch or dinner time.  So often, though, the for call bedtime is followed by ravenous cries of hunger…  “It’s time for bed!”… “I’m Hungry!”  In the past, this was followed by something like, “If you would eat your dinner you wouldn’t be so hungry!”  However, some time ago I tried an experiment in child psychology.  If they’re truly ravaged by hunger then they would be willing to eat something awful… like vegetables.  So, the next time I was faced by the bedtime hunger attack, I pulled out the veggie defense and offered them carrots.  Initially this was met by a barrage of whining fits, but eventually they yielded to my superior stamina and actually ate the carrots.  I know, backfired, right.  Not exactly.  This has now been so entrenched in our childrens psyche that they no longer complain of hunger at bedtime, they just ask for carrots.  Now if you’re asking, “do you let your kids eat at bedtime?”  My response is, “If it wasn’t for bedtime, my kids wouldn’t eat any vegitabes.”

On a related note, I was talking to Isaiah at bedtime tonight about his day at school.  We got on the subject of music class when I asked him if he learned any new songs.  The conversation went something like this:

Dad: Did you learn any new songs at school today?
Isaiah: Yes
Dad: Can you sing one for me?
Isaiah: It didn’t get stuck in my head yet.
Dad: Oh you haven’t memorized it yet.
Isaiah: Yea.  I have a lot of songs stuck in my head.  But I lost some.  Other peoples heads took them.

- Mike