When they are very small, we give them warmth, snuggles and, in some cases, if we're lucky, breast milk. Before their first birthdays, we are giving them excuses for why we won't eat the mushy food they are trying so generously to share with us -- and also giving them back their tiny spoons that SOMEHOW keep ending up on the floor. As our children grow up, go to school, make friends and test our limits, we try our damnedest to give them nuggets of wisdom at each step along the way, finding random opportunities to casually share with them some of the knowledge we've accumulated by making horrendous mistakes living a full life.
While this is not a definitive list of all the insights I intend to bestow upon my daughters as they enter their "tween" years, here are 16 prominent pieces of information I hope they will let marinate in their brilliant minds as they morph into young adults.
- You don't need to eat food out of a box or a bag that's handed to you out of a tiny window on the side of a building. With a handful of ingredients, a bit of want-to and a few spare moments, you can make just about anything from scratch, especially rich and frothy whipped cream, which requires only three ingredients plus five minutes of very active arm muscles -- and is so very worth it, especially when the chocolate chip pancakes you've just made from scratch for dinner are still warm. (Sometimes, a box of mac 'n' cheese after a long day IS the best option. Just toss some frozen peas in there too to make grandmom happy.)
This post originally appeared on Jeff's site, Out With The Kids.
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