Serves me right!

The other day we were at the dinner table, finishing up a nice family dinner. The kids had carrots and hummus, one of their favorite veggie choices. Amanda and I had finished up and were just kind of chatting while the kids continued eating. My one son, Andrew, is world’s messiest eater… food finds a way from his plate to his lap, his face, the table, his clothes, everywhere… it drives us crazy. Of course, I’m in one of my moods where I don’t have a lot of patience for watching the food migration from his plate to the rest of the house.

As we sit I watch Andrew eat his carrots. He dips the carrot in the hummus, swiping it back and forth, twirling it, wiping hummus on the sides.

“Andrew,” I exclaim, all you need to do is scoop a little on to the carrot and take a bite. You don’t need to play with it.

He doesn’t get it; I’m not sure he even tried. Exasperated, I grab the carrot and show him how to neatly scoop just the right amount of hummus on the carrot for a well-proportioned bite of carrot and hummus. I’m not sure he appreciated the nuances of proper form I was demonstrating, even though I made him say to me he understood.

Two minutes later I’m watching the hummus tornado carrot dipping occur again… he did not understand the lesson I had imparted. I’m frustrated and exclaim again to him, “Andrew, just scoop it up and eat it. Don’t twirl it around… make it easy!”

Andrew looks down, then looks up at me. “Dad, I’ll make you a deal… you let me eat my hummus the way I want to, and I won’t bother you the rest of the night. Or, you can tell me how to eat my hummus but then I get to bother you the rest of the night.”

He’s a turkey! Lucky for me, my kids don’t take me too seriously. Amanda and I had a great laugh over it, I lightened up, and he continued eating his hummus the way he wanted.