We Don't Want Your Stinkin' Tacos....

Tuesday night was supposed to be Taco Night.  Rich had to go into work late, so I thought I would finally get this mothering thing down and whilst the kids finished their homework, I would have supper prepared and ready to go.  We would then sit down like reasonably civilized people, eat, and then get on with the rest of our night.  

After typing the above paragraph, I realize all the flaws in my plan.  What I didn't realize on Tuesday night was....the kids were planning ....

THE GREAT TACO REVOLT OF 2011

I have no idea what tweaked them out about having tacos on Tuesday night, but all four of them were.not.having.anything.to.do.with.tacos.  I wasn't overly perturbed that the kids didn't want tacos.  So, I calmly told them if they didn't want to eat tacos, they were going to have to eat....

LEFTOVERS.

Apparently, this particular Tuesday, eating leftovers was the equivalent to making them eat gruel or dirt.  Or gruel made out of dirt. Somehow, leftovers were bad....really, really bad.  I didn't get it.  But every other night of the week my husband and I don't tolerate it.  Eat the leftovers or go to bed hungry.  We don't care.  We are not a short order chefs.  (Although, we usually find the kids eating "leftover" cereal.  Again, we don't care...as long as we are not making a special meal because what is our fridge doesn't meat your standards it's fine with us...get it yourself or go to bed hungry.)

But, this Tuesday night was not quite special enough.  Oh no.  When Rich is gone, one child always feels it their duty to make my evening a little more special.  After the epic meltdown about the leftovers, I received...

A LECTURE ABOUT FOOD PRIORITIES

Specifically, one of my children told me that it was my duty to have supper on the table every night.  AND if I couldn't get my act together enough to have a decent supper cooked for the family, then I should at least have my priorities straight and order take out that they preferred.  BUT if he was going to be FORCED to eat leftovers....

THERE BETTER BE LEFTOVER STEAK!!!

After I picked my jaw off the ground and explained a few things about the world to my child, I put myself in a timeout because I really had nothing nice or coherent to say.  In my time out, I realized 1. this is was not a gender issue for this child....this is a "I'm a hungry kid and I want what I want" issue and 2) I am really okay sending this kid to bed without supper if he doesn't feed himself tonight and/or change his attitude after said child and I have a coherent talk  (which we did) about "my priorities" and "child's attitude/tone of voice/respect/all kinds of things."

Unknown to this child his dad had been grocery shopping and came home with lots of yummy stuff  right before bedtime.  And that night, this child

 WASN'T ALLOWED TO EAT ANY OF IT

because my priorities were all screwed up.