When Dinner Is Over, and a Child Is 'Still Hungry' I'm quandary snatching today. Asha at ParentHacks has a question that I share: What do you do when your finicky kids don't like (read: can't stand) what's being served for dinner and ask if they can instead prepare something else for themselves? Context: we sit down to dinner together every night. As a rule, we eat good quality food, much (but not all) of it kid-friendly, and the cook (me or my husband) prepares a single meal for the entire family. The expectation is that people will eat what they like from what's being served. The thing is now they are old enough (13 and 9) to politely decline the bulk of the meal and, 15 minutes after we clear the dishes, say they're hungry and go into the kitchen to make themselves soup, cereal or whatever other "meal" they want. Asha doesn't like this, and neither do I. I don't require that the children eat what I serve at any given meal - the only rule is that they accept everything on the plate, and don't insult the food or the cook. I cook most meals with the idea in mind that there should be something on the table that anyone would eat (even if it's only bread or pasta). No one should be hungry after dinner, and there is always fruit, and occasionally something else, for dessert. So no one should need a bowl of cereal or a plate of cheese and crackers. If I make a mistake (I am inventive cook; once in a while, I serve a meal that even I conclude I don't want to eat), I make an exception - cereal all around! In my mind, hunger is the best sauce, and a child with easily accessible options isn't going to eat something he or she is less than excited about if there's something "better" in the offing. So I've closed the kitchen after meals. But I do find myself facing exceptions, like the nearly tween son who cleared his plate, ate all the seconds and thirds he could get, including his sister's food, and now wants something else to eat, standing next to the sister who ate very little of a meal that wasn't to her liking, and wants something else too. It's not the easy call it once was. Do you close down the kitchen after meals, or let your children make their own choices about what to eat and when?