only eats white foods

1. In terms of disciplining your child for being a "Whiteatarian," which means that he or she only eats white foods, is it permissible to do so in certain circumstances? This particular occasion occurred over Parents' Weekend at my daughter's college, and we were marking the occasion by taking her out to supper at an off-campus cafe in honor of the occasion. In order to avoid being overcharged, she placed an order for the baked salmon with a side of sautéed spinach as soon as the server arrived, following the directions on the menu as closely as she could. As soon as I saw what was going on, my naive trust in my ability to figure out what this teenager had been up to since we dropped her up at her dorm a couple of months earlier was smashed to the ground. I did the same thing and instantly removed my menu from the table. Her parents had tried for 18 years to get her to eat anything other than noodles with butter and salt, half-baked bagels with basic cream cheese, or — her absolute favorite treat of all time — Rold Gold Tiny Twist pretzels. But they had failed miserably every time. It had turned out to be an useless undertaking. After 18 years of futile attempts, I had finally come to the conclusion that I should quit up. Noodle soup with butter and salt, half-baked bagels topped with basic cream cheese, and — her all-time favorite — fish were the only things she would eat. The only way to encourage her to try anything else was with patience and tenacity. Many people cry when they hear the words "green stuff" (such as spinach) stated, and it is not uncommon for them to do so. However, what was going on with her dinner order this evening piqued her curiosity. As an answer to the inquiry, she merely shrugged her shoulders. Fish is provided in the dining hall on occasion, and my friends all ask for it when it is made available, which is not very often because of the limited supply. Despite the fact that I appeared to be bored and had changed the subject, I was actually performing the parental equivalent of a victory dance in joy of my child's achievement. I had given up on my position as the mother of the world's most devoted whiteatarian because of the astonishing cost of tuition at a liberal arts university 1,000 miles away from home. First and foremost, let me recount those early years when I was driven to despair by a kid who refused to eat anything that wasn't white or brightly colored. Let us now return to the present and witness my cherished progeny really putting spinach in her mouth for herself and the rest of us. Consequently, what exactly was it that prompted her to behave in such an undesirable way in the first place?