Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Battle of the Oats

Why don't my kids like oatmeal??? 

I mean, seriously. I have tried repeatedly over the nearly five years of being a mother to convince them that warm steel cut oats on a cold morning is Heaven on earth. And dontcha know? They don't believe me! 

I've jazzed it up with fruit, and jams, and syrups and brown sugar and FROSTING, yes, frosting. Cream cheese frosting to be exact.

Nothing. Nada. Zilch. 

I just can't quite wrap my head around why they REFUSE to even try them. It's weird. 

WEIRD. 

Perhaps what is weirder though, is the fact that I am so deeply offended by their refusal. 

THEY ARE GOOD! It's not like I leave them plain and oaty. It's not like I salt them and put liver n' onions in them. They are sweet and warm and happy. 

But no. 

"Ew," they say. 

"GROSS!" they cry. 

And it makes me want to sit on them and siphon it down their little whiny throats. 

And that is just not a nice thing for a mother to do. 

Well, this fine morning was a bit chilly. It's almost fall-like. It won't keep, but I had to embrace it, seize the day and all that. So, out came the oats. 

And out came the crying. 

In the end, with a brilliant addition of applesauce, two of my three ate it. (Okay, one of the three, the third one, well, he ate a couple of bites and chucked it across the dining room). But child #1 absolutely refused. 

He was only allowed to leave the table after he tried ONE FREAKING BITE which took him 20 minutes to work up to. Of course the oats were stone cold. And so of course he thought they were nasty. 

And then his little brother finished them off for him. 

Ahh, Spencer. A sweet victory. HE LIKED THE OATMEAL.

The End

Epilogue: Someone please send me two cans of TJ's quick cook steel cut oats. 

The End, again. 

4 comments:

J.B. said...

So, kids are hard to read and it could be a lost cause, BUT here's my two favorite ways to make oatmeal irresistible.
1 - Slightly brown (aka sweet) mashed bananas, butter, milk, and walnuts added. It's like banana bread, only healthier.
2 - A pinch of nutmeg, dash of cinnamon, and touch of vanilla. Sugar to taste and add raisins or walnuts if desired. It's like cookies for breakfast.

Unknown said...

Could you try giving them oatmeal cookies? When they go yum yum over the cookies you can tell them they are made with the same thing that's in their oatmeal bowl. The only backfire is when they want the cookies for breakfast and not the oatmeal.
I like J.B.'s ideas too. I think I'll be trying those mixtures soon.

BloggingBills said...

I personally detest oats in any form except cookies, soft and with raisins so you can't blame them. They are 1/4 my genetics.
MA

TJDKG said...

MMMMMMMMMMM I LOVE oats and so do my kids.. your kids are weird... not really mine probably are the weird ones.

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