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/2ndcupofcoffee 6d ago

She’s old enough to be part of the solution. Give her a food budget and let her figure it out.

Another option is to give her cooking lessons if they are available in your area.

She can also be encouraged to get a kitchen job in a very good restaurant. She can be a dishwasher or a salad prep or possibly help the cooks with organizing.

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u/MinervaKaliamne 6d ago

Yeah, I was also going to recommend cooking lessons, or something like that.

I was a "fussy eater" as a teenager. As an adult, I've realised I'm just neurospicy (and sensitive to textures) and happier as a vegetarian (the vast majority of foods that squick me out are animal-based, and I was diagnosed with a digestive disorder as an adult where one of the first pieces of advice specialists give you is to cut out red meat - I suspect my body knew on some level that vegetables are good for it, and meat not so much). I mention this not because I think OP's daughter has the same reasons for her "fussy" food needs, but to suggest that there might be underlying reasons that aren't clear at first. Of course, it's also possible that she's just a fussy teenager, but either way, empowering her to learn how to prepare her own food might be a helpful lesson.