My 5 year old went to bed hungry

My husband, oldest two kids, and I have all started to watch our diet. We all need it desperately. I’ve been trying to make food that’s as close to what we would “normally” eat as possible, just lower carbs and smaller portion sizes, and we’ve been doing okay. Last night was Cottage Pie, but with cauliflower mash instead of potato. My youngest son doesn’t like potatoes (lucky him), so I usually just give him the filling when I’ve made it in the past. He DOES like cauliflower though, so I figured he’d be able to eat the whole dish instead of just the inside....boy was I wrong.Apparently because it looks like mashed potatoes, it must taste like mashed potatoes (don’t I wish!) and he wouldn’t even touch it. What ensued was a battle of wills the likes of which we’ve never experienced before. He spent well over an hour crying because I refused to make him something else to eat. I told him he likes every single thing on that plate. EVERYTHING. But he refused. I peeled the mashed cauliflower off and told him to just eat the inside, but it was “contaminated” by the fauxtatoes, so there was no bargaining with him. 3 hours we fought until it was bedtime. Every time he said he was hungry, I pointed to his dinner. I told him that I wouldn’t budge, he told me his little tummy was starving. I told him if he was really “starving” (he definitely wasn’t, he snacked all the way up to an hour before dinner - thank you grandma), then he’d eat his dinner. And if it was still there by bedtime, he’d be going to bed with a growling tummy. He didn’t eat it and I didn’t back down.Off to bed he went, with no dinner for the first time in his little life. He survived. Last night as I cuddled with him he told me that I’m “still the best mommy”. It hurt. I worried if I was making the right decision, but the pickiness has started to get out of control (this was not our first fight, but the first where I refused to give in because I KNEW there wasn’t anything he disliked and this was purely psychological on his end). In the end I’m glad I followed through. He wasn’t hurt or damaged, and hopefully in the future he remembers this and makes the choice to eat what I’ve made! via /r/Parenting https://ift.tt/2YHZzxx