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absolutely nothing,” Ryan jokes.

How comedian Katherine Ryan recovered from her son saying her cooking ‘tastes like dirt’ By SPrudence Wade, PA

She adds:“Fred’s taught me a lot about life, about men, about myself.” London-based Ryan had her first child when she was 25, and says having two more over a decade later was a completely different experience.

Katherine Ryan knows all too well how savage kids can be, particularly after her toddler said her food tastes like “dirt”.

“He said, mummy’s cooking is disgusting. Her cooking tastes like dirt was a real blow,” the Canadian comedian recounts of her toddler, Fred. Ryan has three children – Violet, 14, from a previous relationship, Fred, two, and Fenna, 15 months, with her childhood sweetheart and partner Bobby Kootstra. Fred is her most difficult child to wrangle at dinnertime, and she’s gone to desperate lengths just to get him to try her food. “I’ve made a deal with him – I’ve said you can taste it and if you want to spit it out, you’re allowed and you won’t be in trouble. Just put it in your mouth and taste it and see if you like it.Then he’ll be like, OK, and he’ll allow himself to take a bite.And even if he spits it out, everyone in the kitchen goes, ‘Really well done, Fred.Wow! Great. Did you see how Fred tried that? That was really cool’.

Now she’s 40, she admits to having “less energy” than before, but adds: “I’ve learned this time that every child is so different and you have to reserve your judgement.Violet just happened to be this wonderful, amenable, happy all the time and do whatever I said and eat whatever I fed her type of child. “And then my son came along and Fred is a tricky customer – he is such a fussy eater and such a high-maintenance guy in general, that I have had to pivot a bit as a parent, especially at mealtimes.”

“So basically, I’m raising a toxic male and rewarding him for

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