Vent: wasting food

I know this is probably a well known fact and also a moot point, but I just wanted to vent about kids wasting food. If you have toddlers or preschoolers, I'm sure you can relate.

Why is it that you always end up with more food on the floor at the end of a meal than in the kid's tummy? And for older kids, why are they so picky??? You serve something that they have eaten happily since they were a baby and all of a sudden, they don't like it anymore. Then they eat it somewhere else, like school, and they decide they like it again and will eat it at home too. It is just annoying to me when we are on a very tight grocery budget and half the food ends up on the floor.

I've tried serving really small portions, but if they actually like it, then I'm up 6 times getting more for everybody. You just can't win...

I'm not into the "short order cook" routine for my kids, either. I cook one meal for all of us and serve it. If they don't like some of it, they don't have to eat it, but I don't make anything else for them. Luckily, my kids will try anything at least once (even spicy food) and they love veggies, so it's not all bad.