THE MOM STOP: There's no pleasing picky holiday eaters, so why bother?

I just about threw up my hands and gave up a few days before Thanksgiving when  I went grocery shopping, trying to find the elusive ingredients needed for a hash brown casserole and a pecan praline cheesecake.

Yes, I finally found the ingredients, although it took a visit to three different stores. Yes, I braved the aisles filled with an onslaught of other shoppers, some looking for that can of cream of mushroom soup and other searching for a container of heavy whipping cream. And I had to wonder, what is all the effort is for? My children certainly didn’t eat the hash brown casserole or the cheesecake. 

I saw a meme on Facebook recently that made me chuckle — it was a picture of a dinner roll with the words plastered across that said “It’s almost time to spend three days cooking in the kitchen so the kids only eat this.” While it was funny, it was also sadly true. 

My three kids are elementary- and middle-school age now, and so they are slightly open to eating a wider variety of foods. But it wasn’t so long ago that I brought a box of the regular Kraft macaroni and cheese to Thanksgiving because I knew my kids wouldn’t touch the homemade kind.

I always volunteer to bring the rolls to our family holiday celebrations, because I know if I get the Hawaiian style rolls, my kids will eat them heartily. I also always ask my mother if she plans on doing a “fruit salad” at Christmas because — well, again, I know my kids eat fruit. 

I can only imagine my grandmother rolling in her grave as I write this. Or perhaps she is thinking that I’m getting my due. I can just imagine the look she gave me and my sister as kids at dinner time when she’d be busy in the kitchen and we’d ask “What’s for dinner?” and she’d answer “What you are going to eat.” 

Are we enabling our kids by making certain dishes we know they will eat and slipping them in the in-law’s fridge during family get togethers during the holidays? Possibly. 

Does that mean that I’m not going to make my favorite hash brown casserole that I know they won’t touch or the pecan praline cheesecake just because I want to? No way.

Does it mean I stopped putting out a relish tray loaded with olives and pickles at my in-laws, even though no one else really eats them? No. Because it’s my family holiday tradition.

And whether my kids eat olives now at ages 6, 10 and 12 or they decide to eat olives when they are 14, 18 and 20 — it does not matter to me. They will be on the table during holiday meals regardless, the way they’ve always been.

And if my children indeed carry my DNA — which I’m fairly certain they do, since I birthed all three — then there will be a day they decide they like olives. And hash brown casserole. And perhaps even pecan cheesecake, too. 

So even though it’s only days after Thanksgiving and we are still rolling around in our post-turkey, gluttonous recovery, I’m already thinking ahead to what we will cook for Christmas. Because, as we well know, Christmas is around the corner. And if last week’s grocery shopping trips are any indication, I need to start shopping now to make sure I find all the ingredients. 

Lydia Seabol Avant writes The Mom Stop for The Tuscaloosa News. Reach her at momstopcolumn@gmail.com.