Working Parents & Childcare

On workshop days I'm out by 7, and our 5 year old won't eat breakfast unless I'm there

sage_drum_6302

Client workshops mean I leave at 7 two or three days a week, sometimes on a day's notice. My partner does the morning and the van. On those days our son refuses breakfast, sits at the table and says he'll eat 'when Amma comes'. He comes home from class 1 starving and cross. On the days I'm home he eats normally. I can't tell if this is about the food or about me, and whether there's something I should be doing the night before.

3 comments

  • gentle_chai_3364

    Something similar happened when my evening production calls started. He wouldn't eat dinner unless I was at the table. In the end we made breakfast the meal I never miss, and once he could count on that one, dinner stopped being a standoff. Took a few weeks.

  • silver_kettle_7192

    Teacher here. We see a lot of hungry class 1s by 10.30. Even a banana in the van helps. Could your partner pack something he can eat on the way, rather than fighting it at the table?

    • sage_drum_6302

      That might work better than it should. He may eat it in the van precisely because I'm not supposed to be there.

    • indigo_trail_4041

      Ha, this. Our daughter ate nothing at home before school for years and polished off whatever her ammamma packed the moment she reached the gate. Don't fight the table, use the van 🙂

    • sage_drum_6302

      Replying to @indigo_trail_4041

      Two workshop mornings since. Idli in a steel box for the van both days. One came back empty, the other with a single bite taken. I'll take one out of two.

  • banyan_quilt_3647

    ours is a baby so no wisdom here. but 'when amma comes' is going to sit in my head all day 😅

    • lilac_notebook_9993

      It does come, and then it goes. My daughter waited at the gate for me every evening for most of a year, and then one day she didn't. I missed it more than I expected.

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