Kids these days

I realize this makes me sound like a wiry old, wrinkly, codger sitting in my well used lazy boy, ritualistically dressed in a flannel robe and plaid slippers who snatches up his weathered cane with a liver spot riddled, bony hand and shakes them in the air like a charged cage fighter taunting a crowd who just saw their favored gladiator crumple under the agony of defeat. But, in my ongoing series of rants I scowl heavenward and howl "These kids these days! Why, in my day we didn't do none of that or have any of that nincompoopery and we was happy, and we liked it that way!"
This morning I detailed my disdain for milk, but I also said I drank it. Beyond milk, I proudly admit that I will eat just about anything. I have the round and plump midriff to prove it. When I was young I dutifully ate everything placed in front of me on a plate. If I didn't, there was a spatula in the drawer that spoke to my butt with stinging words that hissed to me that I would eat what I was told to eat... because there were starving kids in China and somehow me eating more than my share of food was going to save them.

Now I have a son who won't eat anything. He has somehow managed to sustain life on a diet of an occasional Swedish Fish and McDonald's Chicken nuggets every once in a blue moon. I am not sure where he got the gumption to look at a plate of food and say "I don't like it!" During my childhood, the very thought of uttering such blasphemous hogwash caused me to tremble in fear until I had completely destroyed even the thought. It has caused Mandy and I to look at each other in disbelief and wonder how the tables were turned, how our son can instantly stage a fasting protest and stubbornly hold out until his complexion turns pale, he becomes weak and shaky and dark circles form around his eyes, yet he remains resilient to any notion that he try a new food. For many years I thought our child was unique in his obstinacy. But, the more I talk to other parents who have children Walker's age (and it seems to be unique to males) that they too have children to their chagrin that refuse the majority of their nutritional options. And to that I shake my cane over my head and repeat "Heh! Kids these days!"