For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for October 09, 2012

No, you don’t.

If John didn’t comply, Elly looks like not only sending John to the doghouse, but also locking him inside and setting fire to it. What a burn!!

If looks could kill, John would be a dead man.

you could tell in panel 3 John wants to make a sandwich too but Elly’s look told him to eat what’s in front of him or ELSE!! At least this time he kept his mouth from making some smart A$$ remark like he normally does.

With that many unhappy people, maybe Elly should learn to cook.

Perhaps Ellie should just have John make suppers for a week or two so he can cater to his and the kids taste in meals. It seems to me that none of them appreciate Ellie or try to cooperate with meal prep.

It’s easy to criticize because we don’t know her weekly food budget allowance. In the recent US economy…and elsewhere…people have been resorting to food stamps and having to stretch them by buying staples and other cheap items. I would guess she made a rice and veggie cassarole with mushrooms, tomatoes, onions and celery etc. Kids would prefer peanut butter no matter what you cooked! I would’t have given in so easy because they probably make such a fuss no matter what she makes.

True enough- my kids would happily eat sweet a PB&J 10 times a week and pizza and hot dogs the rest- almost never touching fresh fruits, veggies, lean meats or legumes (yes, a couple of the kids avoid even the ones they love to grow in the garden). But they almost never have that opportunity. Instead, they must suffer through salads or soups or stir-fry or any of hundreds of varied healthier options they are served.

No, Michael needs to eat what mom made for dinner, maybe on a smaller plate with smaller portions but after he eats the Mom made dinner, if he is still hungry, he can have a PB&J sandwich. Kids need to learn to eat what is made. She is not a short order cook

My mom, apparently unlike like Elly, was a good cook. I don’t remember a bad meal ever. Some said yesterday that they’d take mushrooms over onions. I’m the opposite. No shrooms, but don’t hold the onion.

not at my house, this isnt a short order cafe,, you eat whats put on the table or go hungry ,, thats the way we did it

John had better like what she made. Or else he’ll get peanut butter and honey too…still in the jars!

I agree with jeanie and srchief! I’m not a fancy cook, but I serve heathy meals and my kids eat it all without complaining. And I’m personally tired of dealing with kids who come over and they expect me to be the short-order cook that their parents are for them. So rude!

We used to mix smooth peanut butter with maple syrup to make the peanut butter easier to spread. Honey is good that way too.

What I great idea! Gonna make me a peanut butter and honey on a frankfurter roll for breakfast right now.

If she has money for peanut butter and honey, she’s got enough money to make meals that taste good. No excuse here. More importantly – what the heck is wrong with her, terrorizing her husband like that!That ridiculous glare she is giving John is inexcusable. What a hag.

Sorry kids, you eat what is for supper or you wait until breakfast [or whatever the next meal is] It has never been established that Ellie is not a good cook, just that she occassionally gives in a little too much to her kids.

I usually don’t have any complaints about what is on the table. Ever since Vietnam, I can usually eat anything that doesn’t eat me first. And I’m still here. I think that since Jon is a dentist, the Pattersons have a certain abundance. Thus they allow the kids to get away with this sort of thing.

What happened to, “If you don’t eat what is served, you don’t eat”?? Giving in to kids like this will spoil them & they will never develop discipline, respect, or a taste for healthy foods. They won’t starve if you don’t give in.

It does not do the kids good to let them dictate what to eat at supper table. Eat what mom cooked or go to bed hungry. That was what I did. My boys knew to eat at dinner table whether they liked the menu or not. When they liked it, they ate more and when they didn’t, they just ate small portions.

my Dad always said “What you do not like you will acquire a taste for.” and Mom always said “This isn’t McDonalds, you don’t get it your way.” There were 8 of us, we ate what we got, because if you didn’t the odds were the kid next to you would.

You can still raise healthy children while paying attention to their likes and dislikes in the food department. I was forced to eat many a pea and lima bean when I was a child and to this day I still HATE peas and lima beans. They should be made to try new things before they declare they don’t like it. But if you don’t like the taste of a food, you don’t like it. Why make them gag if there are other healthy alternatives? Just for the sake of “I said so.” I think more often then not this just causes aversion to whatever you have forced them to eat in whole portions/servings. That being said, they should also be taught to be polite when they are guests in other people’s homes — meal or no meal.

For once, John said the right thing.

My younger son was like this. We’d be feasting on casseroles or soup, and he’d heat peanutbutter & jelly sandwiches.

My mother always felt that children should be allowed to have food preferences (or nonpreferences) just as adults do. I feel the same way. Mom made us taste what ever it was before we made our own peanut butter (no jelly) sandwich. I knew from personal experience that just smelling a food can be an indicator of non-liking, so I never insisted that my kids actually taste the food. Both of my children are now grown and both like a very wide variety of foods, but still have definite food preferences.Fighting over food (insisting that a child eat something he does not like) is a waste of time. There are SO many more important issues to be stubborn about.

And one other thing, many, many times when a young child says he doesn’t like a particular food, later it will be discovered that he has a food sensitivity to that type of food or some other medical issue. My younger sister never liked meat, particularly pork. Years later she discovered that her gall bladder had never functioned properly. Had any one really listened to a 5year old (and 10, 15 & 20 year old as she grew up) saying "I don’t like pork it makes me feel sick) she would have been spared years of pain. And if Mom had forced her to eat her pork chops, she would have been in even more pain and perhaps ended up with irreversible damage.

No.

I can generally make something the kids like, but another family member rarely can, unless s/he fries something. Some people don’t have a feel for what kids like. I generally don’t like what h/she makes, either. They’ll eat my Spanish rice, pasta with canned red sauce, fruit and cheese, chili, and (except for one) lentil soup and minestrone.

In my younger years, the attitude my parents was “If you don’t like it, then do not eat”. Also, if I only ate 3/4 of what was on my plate, that was acceptable as well. They seemed to have the attitude that if that is all you could eat, that is all you could eat. I am thankful they did not force me to stuff myself by using that old canard of “the starving Ethopians”.

Three possible explanations:1.) John was hungry and willing to eat whatever he was served.2.) John did not want to get on Elly’s bad side.3.) John actually did like what Elly served. (believe it or not!)It appeared that Elly’s ploy had backfired on her, and she was glaring annoying at John to save face. Elly was the one who suggested the kids make their own food, not John!