I was my mother's first child. Born in 1951, my early years were an experiment in post-war parenting that saw many mothers ... mine included ... stuck in a ration coupon mentality that insisted that dinner plates started out with a bit of everything on offer and ended up sans even a single scrap or morsel.

The theory on the preparation of vegetables at the time, at least in my house, involved prolonged boiling until most of the color had faded, the flavor had mutated and the consistency assured that whatever properties the food had before now glued to the tongue and stuck to the sides of the throat setting off a gag reflex that could not be ignored.

I can so clearly recall long summer evenings darkening into night as I sat at the kitchen table staring at long-cold asparagus spears or slimy okra bits while fighting back the urge to regurgitate the dinner I had been able to get down, not allowed to leave the table until ... ?

Since I'm not still sitting there, some compromise must have eventually been reached, but I know for sure that I didn't eat my way out.

Memories of these lonely vigils over disgusting food had me quite conflicted when my first lot of kids was small. The late 60s, early 70s had seen the back of the "Father Knows Best", but those Brady kids didn't leave food on their plates, either.

Although I couldn't bring myself to sentence my daughter or son to time in the chair, I wondered if by allowing them to escape the dinner table without experiencing a Brussels sprout was somehow shirking my parental duty.

At one point, however, I heard or read or came across a bit of wisdom that made so much sense that I have never given the food thing a second thought.

There are two battles a parent can never win: sleep and food.

Truer words have not been spoken. No matter how persuasive, determined, adamant or whatever a parent might be, there is no way to make a kid fall asleep or eat a meal. Sure, you can influence circumstances and provide incentives, but a child has control over those two aspects of life from the get-go.

So, why make a fight to begin with?

Healthy kids eat and sleep. They may not eat everything you'd choose for them at the time you'd like them to, but they're not going to starve themselves, and the less an issue is made of food items, the less likely they are to get it in their minds that whatever it is is totally yucky and to be avoided at all costs.

For a spell, Sam didn't consider anything green to be food. Rather than fret over vitamin deficiencies or well-rounded diets, we let him pick and choose ... the picking being removing the slightest hint of lettuce, the puniest pea, the merest touch of broccoli, and the choosing going all meat and potatoes. Amazing as it may seem to some, he grew tall and strong and developed ahead of the curve even without cabbage.

He's now pushing five, and suddenly green foods are having some appeal. (No, not a peel, you silly reader!) Asparagus spears and broccoli trees are considered tasty snacks these days, and a bit of lettuce on a burger doesn't render it inedible.

Cj, being Cj ... the world's most easy to please child ever born ... eats anything and everything and always has. She also asks to be put down for two naps a day and to go to bed at around 8 pm. I'm sure I could have ruined this, though, had I decided early on to force strained peas on her.

By the way, I still can't stand the thought, much less the taste, of bell peppers and okra ... shudder ... and wonder if I'd feel this way if I hadn't had so many unpleasant moments with both.

Cooking with kids

Ice Cream for Lunch

How to make sure your kid sleeps with you until he's ... oh, 15 or so.