My kid used to eat everything. Things change.

Before I go any further, I am grateful my kid eats anything. Some kids don’t. He just used to eat a wider variety of foods.

Like most toddlers, he’s developed favorites. Goldfish crackers, fries, dinosaurs and oatmeal. If he got to pick every meal, it would consist of Goldfish crackers, fries, dinosaurs and oatmeal. It could be a lot worse.

He will eat other things. But if Goldfish crackers, fries, dinosaurs or oatmeal are available, those are going first.

I should clarify the dinosaurs thing. He doesn’t eat actual dinosaurs because dinosaurs are extinct. He eats things in the shape of a dinosaur. Pita, toast, cheese, pizza, apple, whatever you can cut out in the shape of a dinosaur, he’s more willing to eat. We use dinosaur cookie cutters on non-cookie food. It works. I can not take credit for this.

Most everything we want him to eat, he will at least take a bite if it’s shaped like a dinosaur. Whenever I’m preparing a meal, I think about everything I could serve as long as I can shape it into a dinosaur.

Well, not everything. Some stuff is already in dinosaur form.

Now we’re buying stuff that’s already shaped like dinosaurs. Chicken Dino Bites and Chicken & Vegetable Dino Nuggets and Dr. Praegers Kids Spinach Littles (they’re shaped like dinosaurs, stars and a teddy bear we pass off as a dinosaur) occupy most of our freezer. The kid wants to dip the chicken dinosaurs in ketchup but is quite happy to eat an adult serving size of the Spinach Littles without sauce. So maybe this is a good thing? The sodium isn’t that high and it is made of vegetables (spinach and potatoes mostly but there’s more spinach than potatoes so once again, not complaining).

This is not an ad for dinosaur cookie cutters or any frozen food. I am not advocating this behavior. I may be writing this to understand why or if I need to stop. I do not know. The question is sincere. Am I adapting or failing? Am I evolving or being phased out?

This is also not a woe-is-me, it’s tough to be a parent blah blah blah rant. This, I don’t think, is a problem. Also, I’m grateful. Lots of kids refuse to eat and some kids don’t have enough food. Once again, I am not complaining. I am posing a question.

He’ll eat food not shaped liked prehistoric creatures later in life, right? Like, soon, right? I know he will. I’ve read more than fifty books about parenting and in every single one of them that address toddlers and food, stuff like this is covered. But none of those books cover what’s going on in the parents’ psyche.

This is about me. This is about my evolution. My kid is going to be fine and obviously won’t only eat dinosaurs in a few months or years. But what does this behavior say about me?

Am I adapting by offering food in different shapes to get vegetables into him? Am I failing by presenting food shapes that don’t exist in the natural world? What is the natural world? If he’s able to see it, if he’s able to hold it, that makes it real, so who cares about natural? Nature doesn’t exist when you’re just trying to get your kid to eat something not covered in ketchup.

None of this keeps me up at night. All of this enters my head during the 10-14 minutes it takes to heat up the frozen dinosaurs.

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