Picky Eaters

Working with children poses a whole slew of problems which other jobs don't face. Some things that I deal with on a daily or weekly basis are homesickness, immaturity, and my least favorite picky eaters. While in Benin the kids are great, working girls camp was all the good parts of being a camp counselor, missing all the bad parts. The girls listened intently, rarely did we have to repeat ourselves, they would clean up after themselves and also they would eat the things that were served to them, without so much as making a face at it.

I was sitting at a table with some kids. There were 8 children and just me as an instructor. Not really a big deal, this is normal. We all go up for dinner. The chef likes to try new things, today the thing he wanted to try out was korean bbq. Great for adults, but american children were a little hesitant. There were other things on the menu such as salad, rice and corn, asparagus, and potatoes. A balanced meal. Everyone came back to the table, maybe with plates less full than pasta night, but at least they had something. I look to my left and the girl next to me had nothing, not even a plate. This is the conversation that then occurred:

Me: Why didn't you get any food?

Girl: I didn't see anything that I liked up there.

Me: Can you please go get something. You won't eat again until breakfast, and I don't want you to be hungry in the middle of the night, because there's nothing we can do for you then.

Girl: No, I'm not hungry anyway.

Me: Why don't you just take a little bit of a few things, maybe you'll like something.

Girl: I'm really OK thanks.

During this time other kids at the table told her that the food was really good and that they thought she might like the rice, the salad....

Me: How about you go jump in line again and get one thing.

Girl: No thanks.

Me: Its not really a request. Go get something.

The girl goes up to the line and comes back with the korean steak. I looked at that, and knew she was trying to set herself up for failure by choosing the thing that was the weirdest to her. I smiled at her, and sat back and ate. She poked, prodded, scraped, flipped over, and in all ways throughly inspected her food.

Me: Is it polite to play with our food?

Girl: No

Me: OK just checking.

She continued to play with her food.

Me: You know, I'd prefer you'd eat it rather than play with it.

30 minutes later and 2 more times of telling her to not play with it and eat it instead. I got up and got her a knife (in order to save on water usage they only give our forks and cups instead of knifes and spoons as well). I put it down next to her.

Me: Does the steak seem like a good consistency?

Girl: Yea

Me: Is it pretty thin?

Girl: Yea

Me: Have you throughly inspected the spices on it?

Girl: Yea

Me: You've looked at both sides?

Girl: Yea

Me: OK now that you know all that I'm tired of asking you to stop playing with your food, and it is now time to eat, I brought you this knife so that you could cut it up into small pieces.

She looked at me worried, but I didn't falter. She then slowly cut off the smallest bite. She had it on her fork and began to cry a little. I told everyone else to look another way. She had people encouraging her and telling her that it wasn't bad, her friends were supporting her. Finally I said, "Ok we're going to look away and you need to take your first bite." Keep in mind this is 45 minutes into dinner.

I watched out of the corner of my eye as she at the smallest bite through tears, off the smallest piece she had cut. I wanted to make sure she wasn't going to put it on the floor. She dried her tears and I watched as she had another bite. I asked what she thought of it.

Girl: It's weird.

Me: Can you eat it?

Girl: Yes.

She ate the steak and because she finished she did end up getting desert, which I think was the driving force in her finishing her food.

I get picky eaters, I was once one of the pickiest eaters ever. But this girl was over the top.