Mom humorously insists on feeding kids before Thanksgiving, sharing comical wisdom on making the holiday dinner perfect.
Kids can be very fussy when it comes to food. This becomes problematic when families do elaborate meals such as Thanksgiving dinners and they make an unnecessary fuss about the food. Thankfully, TikTok influencer @craygradens, who describes herself to be in "chaotic motherhood," shared a video with a friendly reminder. The video has 806.7k views and 1,496 comments. It is captioned, "Your happy meal kid isn't eating anything with fennel in it, let's be honest. Thanksgiving mom humor."
The woman is seen wearing sunglasses and holding a cup of coffee as she gives out her "annual reminder." She asks her viewers to give their kids a regular dinner before Thanksgiving dinner. The woman explains, "Mac and cheese chicken nuggets are series regulars." She states how Thanksgiving is essentially a "tasting menu" for them. The woman also highlights how feeding them before the big meal would prevent any tantrums in case they got hungry and became picky about what food to eat.
The woman's advice resonated with many parents on the site and they shared their own experiences in the comments section. @lindsayfic commented, "My toddler ate four deviled eggs. That was pretty much it, but I considered it a win." @stephmarlowe shared, "Just here to disappoint the MIL by feeding store-bought cupcakes to the kids when they won't touch her homemade pies." Another individual, @hbg5232, said, "We will be serving PBJ, nuggets and fries along with our regular Thanksgiving menu. Everyone should get to eat something they enjoy."
Thanksgiving meals can be a complicated affair with most families, especially when it comes to deciding what dishes they want. TikTok user @crcederberg shared a video about how her family utilized the NFL's drafting method to decide which dishes they would make. She said, "This is how I do Thanksgiving so that my siblings and I don't kill each other." Similar to the NFL Draft, "every dish has a point value from one to three: a cranberry dish is a one; turkey is a three. And we all draft what dishes we want to make."
The family also advocated a method called the flex kitchen, which meant that people would stay around the kitchen and help keep it clean. Basically, they would do whatever was needed to ensure that the kitchen was functioning properly. In Cederberg's Thanksgiving Templaye, she reveals how the meal's total points come out to 56. This means that each person in her family of seven would get to be in charge of eight points. She also added that a person could "trade" assignments after the draft was completed.
Owning a task meant that they would be responsible for preparing the dish from scratch. People on the site found the elaborate planning interesting and shared their thoughts in the comments. @optimistic87_ was curious and asked, "I wanna know the root fight that happened where this was the solution." @jamie_broussard said, "The adjustment of flex kitchen points based on peak kitchen hour times is chef's kiss." @alk2177 had a simpler method, saying, "I'm just the Thanksgiving cook. It's become my holiday and I've embraced it. My husband is my dishes man and other parties keep my kids out of my hair."