Children of the Backlash 2: Electronics Boogaloo

Well folks, I did it again. I watched Bravo teevee last night. There were ads. The following Verizon Hub commercial was among them:

Voice-over: Can you see a video about making paella, notify your entire family about paella night, and receive their immediate feedback...

Son: Hey mom, I don’t know what “pah-ella” is, but I’m not eating it, ever!

Voice over: You can now. You can even make back-up plans.

Mom [into phone]: I’d like to order a pizza for delivery.

Voice over: Introducing the Verizon Hub. The home phone reinvented.

[bland, pop-y music that sounds like it might be Jason Mraz swells in the background]

The technology is pretty cool. Here, though, we see a hardworking Supermom using it so that she can even more amazingly slave over a hot stove all day just so that her efforts can be rudely dissed by her proudly ignorant, ungrateful son. Supermom then uses said technology to go out of her way (and out of her pocket, one would presume) to make special alimentary arrangements for her narrow-minded scion.

When I was coming up, we ate what was on offer. The rule was, if we really hated something, we didn't have to eat it, but we were not allowed to say anything against it. No whining "I don't like this!" allowed. That seemed fair and we eventually came to like and eat just about everything.

My big sister's kids have the same rule. It's not enforced ruthlessly. If there is a one-dish meal that a little one really hates, s/he can eat something else, but no complaining. My niece is in a phase where she is generally suspicious of soup (except for my cauliflower soup made with chamomile tea and flavored with gorgonzola and whiskey--go figure). When she was visiting me last October, she melted down over a bowl of chicken noodle. So yes, I gave her a banana and some peanut butter for supper. She had just turned four. The dudelet in the Verizon ad is more like fourteen.

So Shakers, a few questions: did you have picky-eating rules growing up? If you have kids, how do you handle picky eating? And finally, what is up with modeling bad behavior in commercials?