A date with Sarah-Kate; Kate’s home truths

Kate’s teenagers have a lot on their plates!

Now they’re getting bigger, it’s an everincreasing battle to feed my family. I long for the good old days of a pottle of saucy apple or a few teaspoons of mushed-up veges.

Although time-consuming to prepare, at least you knew they’d eaten and had enough.

But these days, sheesh. The amount of food being consumed is never-ending. A huge dinner of spaghetti bolognese, with a massive salad, plus extra carbs like bread for good measure is still not enough. About an hour after that’s digested, they’re back in the kitchen “starving”.

“You don’t even know the meaning of starving,” I’ll say as I start on my children-in-Africa speech.

“No, seriously, Mum, soooo hungry,” they reply as they get stuck into toast and cereal.

As if night-time snacking wasn’t enough, in the morning, their bedrooms will have little packets or bowls by the bed. “What’s this?” I’ll ask. “Oh, got hungry later last night – just had some crackers and some apples,” they’ll reply.

The eating never ends. Mind you, it matches the growing, I guess. Delicate little things they are no longer. Instead, they’re giant, towering mountains of hormones and hunger.

Bar the youngest, of course. She’s less of an eater and more of a picker – a bit of this, a bit of that. Getting her to eat breakfast is my biggest challenge. No matter what’s on offer, she just doesn’t seem to feel hungry in the mornings. No matter how much I bang on about the importance of eating a good breakfast, she still turns her nose up at most offerings. “Fruit?” I chirpily suggest. “No thanks,” she replies. “Toast? Cereal? Banana smoothie? Egg?” I try.

“No thanks, no thanks, no thanks,” come the replies.

The other morning, I decided to do an early trip to the supermarket. My daughter, already awake, asked to come with me. So we shot off to grab some groceries. As we got back in the car, she spotted a McDonald’s drive-thru.

“Oooh, Mum, can we pleeease go through? I really feel like pancakes!”

“No,” I replied, with my standard knee-jerk response to any suggestion of McDonald’s.

“Pleeease,” she begged. “It’s right there! And it’s breakfast time and I’m hungry.”

I was torn. It would be good for her to eat something for breakfast versus her standard nothing and she’d been helpful at the supermarket ... She could see me wavering. “Just this once!” she pleaded. “OK, fine,” I relented and headed for the drive-thru.

At home, she devoured her hotcakes, hash brown and hot chocolate. Although I was happy she’d eaten it, I told her this was a one-off and we’d have to find a homemade alternative for future breakfasts, given the McDonald’s drivethru was not going to be a regular occurrence.

“OK,” she replied. “But just so you know, Mum, it was the best breakfast ever.”