The Power of Pie

Helping with the Thanksgiving Meal Makes Big Impressions on Little Kids

By Larissa Phillips

Thanksgiving dinner is a tough one for families with young children. It's like this terrible obstacle course. Never is a small child expected to sit at the table for so long, eat so many new foods, all the while posing for pictures meant to go down for the ages. It's like one of those survival reality shows. Add travel fatigue, strange relatives, mildly stressed parents, flash bulbs popping and the race is on.

After the first few years of expecting my young son to contribute to the joy of the Thanksgiving meal (and being mightily disappointed), it was a huge relief the year a friend suggested we let our crew of 4-year-old boys take their plates of turkey into the other room to watch a video. What a concept! It was the most peaceful Thanksgiving meal I'd had since … well, becoming a parent.

But it's a slippery slope. I have a lurking fear of my children ending up like a cousin of mine, who even as a teenager would eat a hotdog at Thanksgiving and be excused almost immediately to go play video games. As the mother of one of the pickiest eaters on the planet, I know how easy it would be to go down that road. I'm armed and shielded, ready for battle.

One of my major weapons? Pie. Oh sure, there are other tactics, little ways to get children invested in the Thanksgiving meal, like mashing potatoes, checking on the turkey ("Did the popper pop yet?"), hunting for leaves and pinecones to decorate the table. But homemade pie is the secret weapon, the powerful charm in my bag of holiday tricks.