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Manic Mondays: Fourth Meal

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While one of the definitions of fourth meal from the urban dictionary reads, “a corporate conspiracy to further addict the hapless masses to crappy, fat-laden food.” (obviously referring to the Taco Bell campaign), I have a different definition.

Fourth Meal: The meal that comes after dinner to torture parents right before bedtime.

Yes. Somehow, we have gotten in the habit of fourth meals in this house. And, I’m dying to stop!

Case in point:

Tonight, I was gone for a church activity, and we had lots of leftover cupcakes at the activity. So, I brought a few home for the kids. My husband had made a delicious Thai themed dinner of salmon, rice noodles and whatever else he concocted while I was gone. When I left the house, I was confident the kids would have a healthy well-balanced meal thanks to the my husband who is a really great cook. But, then I walked in with cupcakes, and stupidly announced, “Who wants a cupcake??” Kids came running from every part of the house (why do 3 kids seem like so many?) and I realized my awesome husband had them all bathed too. Bonus points!

The kids immediately started devouring their cupcakes, and I was happy to bring them a treat after dinner….you know, they had the Thai Salmon Rice noodles thingy….so they deserved a cupcake. As they were gleefully shoving sugar into their mouths, I noticed candy wrappers on the floor. “Oh! Did you guys already have a piece of candy?” Yes. They had candy. Then, I glanced over to the table and noticed popcorn that had been popped. “Oh! You had popcorn too?” At this point, they started giggling knowing they had pulled one over on mommy. Then, I realized what was in the mugs that were sitting on the counter. Mugs with remnants of eggnog. “WHAT!? They had eggnog too?” I now started directing the questions at my husband. He didn’t respond and pretended to be very busy doing some homework on the computer, while the almost two year old shoved another glob of icing in his mouth.

They finally finished their fourth meal (although in this circumstance it sounds like it was meal number 5 if we count the popcorn, eggnog and candy they had after dinner). And as they were licking their blue, icing crusted lips, I asked the four year old to go brush his teeth. He responded, “We already did!” Of course, you did!

My kids were bathed, with teeth brushed, and I ruined it all with my stupid announcement of “Who wants cupcakes!?”

Fourth meal is killing me.

I don’t know why, but there is so much satisfaction in cleaning my kitchen after dinner. To see the clean counters, and to know that I’m done with feeding my kids for the day is so wonderful. Yet, it never fails that as soon as we bring up the subject of brushing teeth, someone says they’re hungry. And, most of the time, I believe they are.

I know what most of you are going to say, “I don’t give it to them! They can just go to bed hungry. My kids get one meal at night and if they don’t like it…tough!” I hear you moms shaking your heads  and fingers at me. I know you don’t feel sorry for me. And the truth is, I don’t feel sorry for me either. I just feel tired of wiping those counters and sweeping those floors for a fourth time each day. When I’m the MOST tired. Usually fourth meal ends up being the laziest, easiest meal of the day. It’s awful. And hardly nutritious.

Sometimes I do stick to my guns and say, “Well, you should have eaten a better dinner”, but when I think back to the meal we just ate, hoping that they will finally like the taste of quinoa after being exposed to it for the 341st time, and realized they didn’t exactly “eat”. I sometimes cave in, and a fourth meal is whipped up. Maybe it’s a cupcake, maybe it’s leftover mac and cheese, sometimes it’s oatmeal, but fourth meal is pure torture for me. The kids? They live for fourth meal!!

If Taco Bell had been smart, they would have marketed fourth meal to toddlers everywhere. Kids would have been ALL over it.

Tell me that some of you have fourth meal in your house too!? Am I ruining my kids forever? Probably not. Am I teaching them that mom might just feel enough guilt to let them eat Fruit Loops after dinner if they pretend to hate quinoa for the 341st time. Possibly.

So I have to ask a hard question for me to answer. Do I continue to make Thai Salmon Rice Noodle Quinoa type meals and plan on a fourth meal, or do we just live on macaroni and cheese until they’re teenagers? It’s a toss up, really.

Comments

  1. I vote you just feed them Mac and Cheese for a decade or more., not so much to get even over this as because I value predictability in food pretty highly. You could serve me that two meals a day and become my favourite cook actually. I say two and not three because even I would draw the line at breakfast. There are countries with more than three meals a day so the guilt you might be feeling at this easy cupcake meal doesn't seem warranted. I had chocolate cupcakes for breakfast every day for 5 days a few weeks ago and the only thing I thought I had about it was wow I ate something that wasn't peanut butter. If everyone could just adapt my very low threshold as far as what people can eat and it be okay, there would be less meal planning and less guilt.
    Reply

  2. Haha, my questions would have been going directly to the "source" (aka my hubby) really quick! ;) We're in the terrible habit of dessert. Every. Night. There's no 4th meal here, but I do mac & cheese. lol
    Reply

  4. I'm the worst mom ever. I don't even call them meals. I call them "snacks," because I eat like a 5 year old. There's a lot of string cheese and yogurt and crackers and blueberries all eaten throughout the day in a grazing style. Gulp.
    Reply

  5. Fourth meal sounds like dessert to me. I never had dessert growing up, so I nix it almost every time the kids ask. My wife, however, is a fan of dessert and so she and the kids do have dessert quite often when I'm at work or whatever. As to another meal though, we are in agreement that the kids eat what we serve and if they don't like it because it's something that no kid can be expected to like, then they can have leftovers or something reasonable from the pantry. Ours are pretty good about not being hungry before bed for some reason. None of them has any hips, so many that's why?
    Reply

  7. My kids, 4 and 6, are expected to eat three solid bites of whatever we're having for dinner. If they still hate it, they can make themselves a sandwich or something, but that almost never happens. A couple nights a week we have leftovers, and they can choose their meal, within reason. My 4 yo is hungry EVERY NIGHT before bed. But not really, she just doesn't want to go to bed, so we're pretty much the meanest parents in the world.
    Reply

    • It must be a trend. It's my 4 year old that is asking for food every single night too! And, yes, sometimes I feel like the meanest parent in the world sending them to bed "hungry". Good thing I know how to say no sometimes! :)
      Reply

  8. Dude, MY COUNTERS ARE OUT TO KILL ME TOO! All I really want in this life is to have clean, vacant counters at the end of the day. Seriously, that's all I ask. It has become a thing, and it cannot possibly be healthy for me to place so much value on that singular fixation. But fourth meals are killing me too. However, in our case, my husband and I have no one to blame but ourselves. Since we eat so early with C (5PM) and then don't go to bed ourselves until 11PM, we always get hungry before bedtime. Related: the peanut butter industry is financially solvent thanks to our fourth meals.
    Reply

  9. Gotta love that fourth meal. Keep doing it. They'll self regulate as adults hopefully .... Loved the fruit loop mention. I told my two they were only available at the hotel we stay at in Victoria. So they became known as "Victoria-ohs." So special when Henry found them in the Safeway cereal aisle. At home. Oops.
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  11. I say keep up the awesome healthy meals (that Thai dish sounded delicious!) on a regular basis rather than cave to the kid monotony of mac n cheese. They will eventually try it after being exposed so often...or at least that is my hope. We do dinner and dessert if the kids at least eat some of their dinner. But inevitably my daughter wants yogurt and/or an apple when we are about to read stories. We usually give in, my husband always gives in since they are healthy choices but it still makes me nuts because in my mind, the kitchen is CLOSED after dinner cleanup and I want her to just eat dinner then she won't be hungry. Needless to say, I waste my breath a lot of the time ;)
    Reply

    • Well, I'm just glad I'm no the only one that does fourth meal! :) I'm sure 90% of the time, it's a manipulation tactic, but still…I'm glad when they eat. My kids could definitely stand to put on a few pounds!
      Reply

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