Since when do starving people refuse food?

I'm just curious, because this morning LMNOB said she was utterly and completely hungry - enough so to use the S word.

Save the drama for your mama, girlie, you ain't starvin'. Oh wait, I am the mama? Right, well lay the whack job hystrionics on me then.

I did a verbal inventory for her - "Well, we have grains galore; waffles, mini-pancakes, cereal, or toast. We also have yogurt."

And then the most curious statement escaped my starving daughter's mouth: "I don't want any of that."

I told her how fabulous I thought it was that here she was starving and yet she still felt as if she had the ability to magically make her preferred food of the day arrive. Also how a dramatic fit somehow translated that she would get a donut at the Safeway by her school. Mmmm - no!

Then, "What you don't seem to understand m'dear, is that you are the child and I am the parent. We have all this great food here and if you choose not to eat one of the aforementioned options, ultimately you are choosing to go hungry. You have 10 minutes."

She still didn't make a choice, so I poured her a bowl of cereal, set it on the table and went back upstairs to get Punkinhead dressed. Came down, as it was time to leave, and the stubborn little grunt was sitting on the couch, with nary a bite having been taken from her cereal.

"All right, it's time for school. Let's go."

"But Mommy, I'm S.T.A.R.V.I.N.G!"

"And whose fault is that?"

What she doesn't know is that it is extremely difficult to be all cavalier and following-through on this particular topic. Or maybe she does and was hoping all along that I would cave?

Ms. S would get it when I told her about it. LMNOB's lunch is obscenely early (10:30 - b/c it is a K-8 school and well, they only have so much room to feed the kids in and a bunch to get fed), and she'd be fine.

Except...I remembered as we pulled up, there was a sub today. So as we got to the classroom, I pulled the older-looking-so-hopefully-she-was-raised-this-way sub aside and told her, "LMNOB may complain of being hungry. She refused to eat anything we had at home this morning, and I refused to let her win by buying her breakfast."

She peered over her glasses at me, all concern and care, for her, and says, "Well, we'll just have to do then." LMNOB looked at me with sullen eyes that said, "I can not believe you. You are a mean mommy."

I then tilted my head with a smile and eyes that replied, "Yep, and I'd be an even meaner mother if I let you get away with crap like that for the rest of your life. Love you!"