The kitchen is closed.

Last night, we were sitting at the kitchen table eating an extremely simple dinner of leftovers, (but at this point even that can feel like extreme work to me) so as we were finishing I said to Heath, " Boy after dinner I am going to go lay down. The kitchen is closed." Heath didn't even have time to respond. Graham looked up at me with a look I can only describe as incredulous and said, "What?! The kitchen is closed?" I immediately knew this was going to be good so I said, "Yep, its closed so you better eat all your food because mommy isn't making anything else tonight." You see Graham's normal routine is to goof around during dinner barely eating anything and then crying right before bedtime that he is starving and can't possibly sleep until he gets something to eat...highly frustrating. I was thinking that this whole conversation could really work in my favor. He then said, "So, even Daddy won't get me anything to eat (clearly scraping the bottom of the barrel)?" Heath said, "Nope, Buddy the kitchen is closed." Slight pause. Graham continues, "Tomorrow morning can we have dinner?" I said, "Yes, we can have dinner tomorrow morning when the kitchen opens again. And, dinner in the morning is called breakfast." Again a pause. Then the most wonderful thing happened. Graham starts shoving in his mouth every bit of his dinner. After he finished he looked over at my plate and said, pointing to the canned corn, "That looks good." I asked him if he wanted any and he said yes. So, I scooped him out a big spoonful and he ate all of that as well. Heath and I were trying so hard not to smile or laugh especially because we both know how much he hates canned corn! I really think he thought that this was it. If he didn't shove it all in he was going to go to bed hungry for sure. Heck, a man can't argue with the kitchen being closed!

Anyway, he asked if the kitchen would be closed again tonight after dinner and I said yes and miraculously he ate all of his dinner again. So, if your kids are like mine and think you are a short order cook, maybe you should hang your apron up on a peg and put out a sign that says, KITCHEN CLOSED. It worked for me!