luck

Tapas (or The Dangers of Telling Kids Things, Though Sometimes I Get Lucky)

~ mary_m ~ 2 Comments

Ever since my older kid found out about High Tea, he’s been (even more) intrigued about the different ways people eat. The other day we told him that people in Spain eat snacks around 5pm (aka after school time) and dinner really late. So, of course, he wanted to try it.

Tonight we had “appetizers” around 6pm and are planning on dinner at 8:30pm. (NB: there’s no school tomorrow.) Because we’ve stretched out the evening*, and because we shook up our routine, we were all much more relaxed and I found myself eating bluefish paté**, drinking a martini***, and listening to my spouse explain hexadecimal to two actually interested kids. Magic.

Now the problem is explaining why we can’t do this every night. (Or maybe figuring out how we can do it every night, though I suspect it would require siestas.)

*generally dinner is at 6:30, then there’s arguing about clearing the table, then one brief thing like a game, then arguing about getting ready for bed, then…

**apps menu: smoked salmon and bluefish paté from the farmers’ market, crackers, teeny pumpernickel toasts, cornichons, and blue corn chips (because kid the younger did not trust me to make the pumpernickel toasts the right degree of crunchy and wanted a back-up)

***because I’m extra lucky

Market Mornings, Roaming Kid

picture of pastries, turnips, salmon and mushroom growing kit
~ mary_m ~ Leave a comment

My 7 year old and I have a new routine. For the past few weeks, we’ve gone to the local Farmers’ Market together, then to the café, every Saturday morning.

I’ve been trying to get my kids to enjoy going to the market with me for years. In California, land of grandmothers*, free samples, and pozole, they go happily. In Massachusetts, where it’s just Mom buying vegetables and occasionally relenting on chocolate or popsicles, it’s not as appealing. I finally discovered the secret formula, however – I get market tokens (which work as cash, but only at the market), hand some over to my kid, and let him roam independently. He finally loves it.

There’s one rule**: no sweets. It is amazing to me how well this works. He has happily come back to our rendezvous point with carrots, mushrooms, eggs, a decorative gourd, discount apples, and more. This week’s haul was a croissant, a ciabatta roll, a mushroom growing kit (specially budgeted for after he found out its price last week), smoked salmon, and two turnips. NB: He won’t actually eat the turnips; those he picked out for me. I am still charmed.

This is, for the record, a kid who is pretty darn choosy and restrictive about what he eats, a kid who has marked reticence regarding talking with strangers and trying new things. He politely waits in line, inquires about prices, and delights in his finds. He also ate smoked salmon for lunch. It’s great.

It may not last long, but I’m appreciating the heck out of it while it works, and tomorrow he said he’d help make potato/turnip pancakes, even if he doesn’t want to actually eat them.

*Two of their grandmothers that is. They also have grandmothers in Indiana and Oregon.

**One rule re: buying things that is, general rules such as do not run people over with your scooter and ask before petting someone’s dog also apply.