Dinner Rules

Well today and tomorrow I have the Burchard kids while Tina and Rusty are away in the mountains. Tonight I make Pizza's and ask the kids if they want green beans or corn to go with it. I know what a perfect meal, right!?! So Abby and Paige reply corn and Carter says green beans. I decide to solve the problem by making both and then proceed to tell Abby and Paige they have to eat at least three green beans and then telling Carter he has to have a bite of corn. Now the girls weren't happy with their green beans but they managed. Carter on the other hand looks at me like this is the worst thing ever. We finish eating and Carter still has his corn on his plate. So knowing that he likes to be a booger and work his way out of it I lay down my authority (this rarely happens) and tell him it's a bite of corn or straight to bed after his bath. The scene that unfolded was ridiculous I think he told me like 8 times that he didn't like corn or that he's tried it and then tells me he can't. Ten minutes after his sisters have cleaned their plates and left the table he finally eats a bite of the corn topped with a green bean drenched in ketchup. 

Now that little bit was funny in and of itself however the flash back in my head made it priceless. Growing up I'm sure you had rules at your dinner table. Rules like, waiting for everyone to be done, eating everything on your plate, asking to be excused and so on. In my house my mom had one major rule and this rule made my cousins dread eating at our house. You didn't have to eat everything you just had to try at least ONE BITE OF EVERYTHING. (That and you had to eat the crust on poptarts)  I remember many a dinners one of us trying to get around this rule or sitting at the table for what seems like forever hoping that she would change her mind. So as I sat there tonight waiting Carter out, and not just letting him of the hook, I couldn't help but to think my mom would be proud. That and then she'd laugh as my dad said "your acting just like your mother."