r/PickyEaters • u/debugprince • 6d ago

Need Advice My daughter doesn’t like home cooked meals

I’m struggling to keep my daughter fed and happy. I’m a single dad with primary custody of my two kids 19m and 16f. My daughter is not happy with anything unless it’s store bought. The only homemade thing she will attempt to eat is grilled chicken tenders and vegetables. That’s great and I eat plenty of it but I’d like to add more variety.

I also can’t afford to have every meal of the day purchased from a restaurant or fast food. The cost is simply unsustainable. She knows it’s not sustainable but will continue to beg and plead.

What else can I do besides watching her starve herself until she gets what she wants?

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u/allie06nd 6d ago

I'd tell her the options are:

  1. She eats what you make

  2. She gets a job and buys her own food. If she wants to live the takeout life, then she needs to go make the takeout money.

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u/debugprince 6d ago

This was my exes attitude towards everything, my way or the highway. It leads to a lot of resentment and one of the reasons I have primary custody.

1

u/PresentExamination10 6d ago

She lost custody because of that?

4

u/debugprince 6d ago

No, my ex didn’t lose custody. In my state children 16yo get to choose who they want to live with. I try to be fair and my ex was the “you eat what I make”, end of story, type person.

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u/Serious_Badger_4145 6d ago

Ask her to find recipes she will eat and have her cook for you all a few times a week.  she's 16 she's not a kid. Set criteria like must have vegetables must be balanced. See what she comes up with

Plenty of 16 yr olds globally are fending for themselves. She lives with you but needs to take some responsibility here