THE TACO TYRANT!

This whole thing started with an innocent conversation with my then, 10 year old. Her behaviorist and I were looking for "rewards" to maintain her "good" behaviors in school and at home. This was the beginning of my nightmare...The Day of The Taco Tyrant!

When you have a child with special needs, most therapists and specialists believe that a positive reward system ( no, not bribery) helps to ensure those desired behaviors to continue and in time increase, so the "rewards" can be slowly deleted until no longer needed. I have used these behaviorial methods for years, with my students and my own children. It works! Sometimes, however it turns on you and creates a monster,,a reward monster! 

So my child had a list of "rewards" we used on and off, because you need to change up frequently or they stop working. We had :

1. Computer time  2.Painting time  3. Water play..4. Certain DVD's of her choice  5. Food items.....here's where it all began...my slow fall into the hands of the biggest and strongest dictator of them all...My child..all 11yrs of her!

We bought a few tacos at a time and froze them for rewards at home...at school we had tiny tacos from Trader Joes..very tasty...that the school kept on hand for her. It worked very well for her biggest feat...staying on task. A certain program for her was implemented, where she'd accumulate tickets for her reward; a taco for her desired behaviors. After so many acquired tickets, she'd cash them in for her taco..then we duplicated it at home, exactly so she would really get it.We tried changing up the reward but we always came back to THE TACO> It worked best with her. This can sometimes be the case with a reward system.

Now time has passed and she no longer needs the "reward" system. She's older now and her "non-desired behaviors are few..thank God! There's only OnE BiG problem here....she has never given up her desire for tacos! No..I don't mean she likes them still..I mean its progressed to the point where TACOS are the only food she'll eat. I make tacos for breakfast ..lunch..and dinner..and have been for some time now! I do throw in some other means of a meal like lasagna, avocado salad, shrimp and rice...but I have discovered it so much easier to incorporate the foods I know to be healthy and needed in her diet, by making them a taco!

I have created the chicken /mushroom/pineapple/ rice taco, the pork chop/ onion/ provolone cheese taco with black beans...I have made her tacos out of whatever we eat that day.. including healthy ingredients and not ever are the tortillas fried...just warmed slightly. This sure has solved a lot of problems and prevented many disagreements. She's getting her nutrition and yes, she enjoys her foods. When we go to other houses to eat or at the restaurants, we then are "allowed" to give the "TACO PRINCESS"  something other than a taco.

At home though, when I stupidly ask the PRINCESS what she wants to eat ( children should have some choices and I usually offer 2 for her food intake) I know she'll clearly and loudly state.. "TACOS" and so it is. Should I serve a delicious dish of Chinese Beef or Sweet n Sour Pork...you guessed... it goes into a folded tortilla...and becomes a new taco .Ive done this with Mid Eastern cuisine...curry chicken with spinach and rice also becomes a strange but acceptable taco. The wonders never cease..and so do the demands!

**One dreadful night, I had to go to the grocery store at 10pm to get her favorite tortillas ( yes, she has specific preferences) and nobody had them...three stores later and very tired from my TORTILLA RUN, I felt like Harold and Kumar Go to Whitecastle! AWFUL! ( and no great little burgers!)Three more stores and two towns later, I got the golden tortillas and made my tyrant her tacos....cheese and ham.(it was all I had in the house and didn't think about fillings during my drastic search!)******

Yes, I know what some are thinking..."you are being controlled by your child..shame on you...YOU are in charge...terrible mom...bad training"...blah blah blah....Right??

Well...this may be so...but, you are talking to a mom whose one son...now 31yrs old.. wanted "getti and meballs" for at least two years...and yes, today he does eat a wide variety of foods from all over the world. He also doesn't pronounce the food that way anymore! Whew!

Children are known to have these STUCK moments in taste preferences.. whether challenged or not. Those with challenges tend to get "STUCK" a little further and a little longer..so be it! It's not forever..right?? You can't make all the fights battles and all the battles can't be wars!

So, my TACO TYRANT, since I wrote this, has actually asked for another food...it was pancakes! Wow.. not sure how many things I can do with pancakes, but I'm already on Google and plan to write these ideas down.. Could she now be the PANCAKE PRINCESS?? Hey, this is a pain in my. ....kitchen....but I am discovering my inborn creativity...I might even publish these ideas. Why not?? I think my TACO TYRANT will approve!

So Happy Eating, no matter how demanding your child may be...before you know it, they're in college, living in their own dwellings and maybe even one day have a child just like them....food fetishes and all! One can only hope!

Namaste!