Sharing life moments in our world. Small ones - but they are the ones that count. I promise. Tonight I let Aria (age 10) try a Twinkie for the first time. Someone at school told her she hadn't lived until she had eaten one. It made her curious. So I acquiesced. We talked about the shelf life of a Twinkie. We talked about why that’s not a great example of healthy eating, but that diet is all about balance so it’s ok to have a guilty pleasure now and again. Yada yada. We bought a 2 pack of Twinkies last night at the store.
I have a strong belief that we crave what is made forbidden to us. We’ll actually mentally elevate the taboo and make it better than it is in reality if told we cannot have it. I did not like giving Aria a Twinkie. Not at all. But more so, I want her to learn freedom of experience. Personal choice. Informed decision. Free will.
Yes, I know it was a Twinkie. It wasn't a hot burner, or her first crush breaking her heart. It wasn't the bong being passed at her first college party where I’m not there to guide her. I get it. But the principal stands, regardless of the forbidden fruit. I yielded to trust. I let go of control.
We read all the time as parents that we need to give our kids opportunities to fail. To fall down. To bruise a knee. We nod our heads and heartily agree because our own knees were so often bruised in our youth. We walked home from friends at dusk, for heaven’s sake. We were risk takers. Big time. We relate to this.
But then we proceed to put bumpers in every bowling alley, bubble wrap sharp edges, put all our crystal on the highest shelves even our own arm span cannot reach without a step stool, and spray our backyards with pesticide lest a mosquito bring the whole thing down like a house of cards. We are control freaks, trying to make safe a world that is nearly entirely out of our control.
No part of me is afraid that my foodie child (who asked for stuffed artichokes and chicken breasts for her 2nd, yes - 2nd, birthday) is going to succumb to preservative fever. She managed to eat the first Twinkie. When I asked if she wanted the second, she gracious declined and offered it to me. It is sitting in the kitchen where my cats are circling it as though it were a rare breed of bird brought into the house to nest. It will be in the trash within the hour. With perhaps a claw mark or two indented upon its spongy surface.
Mystery solved. Aria thinks the kid at school has never had my chocolate cloud cake or they’d understand real living.
Remind me of this post when she wants to do the next thing that’s outside my comfort zone, will you please? It’s good to stretch those boundaries. One Twinkie at a time.
PS – this song doesn't really mesh with Aria trying a Twinkie. But it is about addiction. And it is fabulous. So there.
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