Patches’ solution
Like parents everywhere, Howard and I frequently provide “incentives” for our children to encourage behavior that we want. (We like the word “incentive” rather than the blunter “bribe” because it makes us feel less guilty for using the tactic.) The most common use of this tactic is at dinner time: “Kids who finish all of their dinner can have chocolate milk!” This is usually followed by the devouring of all food and demands for the promised treat, which we happily dole out, having gained our point. Sometimes however this tactic has uninintended results. Patches doesn’t much like hamburgers. There is something about the flavor or consistency of the meat that he simply doesn’t like. However her really really likes chocolate milk. So when Daddy told him he had to eat up all the hamburger in order to get chocolate milk, Patches put his brain to work and found a way to meet the requirments without actually ingesting any of the despised hamburger. He carefully bit, chewed, and spat back out every single bite of that hamburger. Howard and I only noticed this process when the hamburger was almostly completely rendered into a ground up pile on his plate. To Patches dismay we removed the mess and required him to eat a hot dog instead. We don’t give Patches hamburgers anymore.