by Joanna Venditti posted in Mom Stories

The other day, as I sorted my almost 6-year-old daughter Beau's blueberries (because she doesn't like the small ones), I flashed back to the week before when I was on date night with my husband. I sat watching my 33-year-old husband remove all of the blue Sour Patch Kids from its package, because in his words, "They taste gross." This is a 6'8" father of four. An engineer, who at times reminds me of our twin toddlers. Are you kidding me"
I am not a picky eater. I never have been. I went through a phase as a kid, refusing to eat squash, but that was because I was traumatized when my aunt once made me sit at the table until I ate all of it. I sat there until it was dark out. I won. But in the end everyone lost because it created a negative relationship between me and squash, forever. Needless to say, my mom was pretty ticked when she heard about this incident. I have always loved food and eating, so much so, I don't like smoothies, because I'd much rather sit and slowly eat my meals.
Before becoming a mom I had dreams of our kids eating the healthy, gourmet-style foods that I so love. I vowed to have very limited junk in our house, and our kids would just eat whatever we ate. Ha!

When our son Holden began eating solids, we quickly realized that we had a picky eater on our hands who was similar to my husband. Despite offering him a variety of healthy options, and creating a positive atmosphere around foods, he narr...