Dad Invents Genius Plan to Get His Four Picky Eaters Happily Fed

As many parents know, getting dinner on the table for a picky eater is tough. When even the kid-friendly slow cooker recipes fail, what's a mama or papa to do?

Perhaps it's time to consider taking the lead of Reddit user BabyHooey who recently took to the popular message board forum to share his strategy, starting with a post a month ago entitled "I just retired from cooking: Night One."

Four kids, 10-16.

I used to love cooking, and I'm good at it (according to objective others, not just myself).

Kids have become so picky that there are literally no meals left that I can make without someone complaining. Spaghetti? I make my sauce with Italian sausage and one kid has decided she hates fennel. One kid has Celiac, which rules out wheat (obviously not her fault) so that makes it harder. One kid hates cheese, which rules out a lot of things. One kid hates chicken. We were safe for a while with tacos until one kid decided she was never eating tacos again.

So tonight, I was stand in the grocery store feeling stupid. Like there's an entire store full of food, and I'm able to buy anything in the store within reason, and yet somebody will complain about anything I make.

And that's why, in the middle of that grocery store, I decided to retire from cooking for the family.

After grocery shopping for a variety of ingredients he told his kids that their parents would still buy food, but it was up to them to prepare dinner for themselves. Surprisingly, the kids got to work on prepping their meals in about 30 minutes, with meals ranging from a PB&J to noodle soup. "If it looks like we're going to encounter nutritional deficiencies, I guess we'll address that as it comes up, but so far I'm pleased with the results of Night One," the dad signed off his post, adding that he could continue to post with updates.

WATCH: How To Pack Lunches For A Picky Eater

So how did this savvy experiment turn out? It seems like it actually worked, as a Reddit update post revealed:

For about two weeks, everyone lived off of sandwiches and cereal. At about that point, I started cooking for myself and my wife only, things that we like to eat and cook.

Eventually, one kid said, "That smells really good, can I have some?" I said that I only made enough for the two of us, but if they'd like some of tomorrow's dinner, let me know and I can make extra. I was expecting "what's tomorrow's dinner" but instead I got, "yes, please, anything's better than more sandwiches."

All of them eventually followed suit. I'm back to cooking for six, but I'm making whatever I want to make. If anyone has a problem with it, there's sandwiches or cereal. And surprisingly, sandwiches and cereal are being chosen very rarely.

So the retirement didn't last long, but the temporary strike seems to have solved the problem that led to my premature retirement, so I'm good with it.

Of course, this may not be the most conventional approach, but it certainly has merit. Ultimately, perhaps it teaches us that the key to helping picky eatin' children expand their palates comes in the form of a food-centric cliché: Teach 'em that variety is the spice of life. The more they experiment themselves in the kitchen and lend a helping hand to others in preparing meals, the more they'll find a world beyond PB&Js.