"I want a Cinnamon Roll!" Victoria announced in a very clear, firm voice. Elaine had just finished baking some of those delicacies and they smelled good enough to have caused even the mouth of a graven image to water.
"I'm afraid you haven't finished your chili from supper," I said. "If you eat that, then you can have one."
"No!" Came back the answer. "Chili is soup and I don't like soup!"
It was interesting, as I'd never heard Victoria express this dislike of soup before. My guess though, was that compared with Cinnamon Rolls, Chili Soup no longer sounded delectable.
"You just have to eat it first," Elaine said. "Dessert can't be the first thing you eat at your meal."
(I have often violated this rule and often start a meal with a cookie when no one is watching, but we'll leave that for another day).
I suppose it is a testament to what awesome parents Elaine and I are that we didn't cave to our incredibly stubborn four year old. While Victoria is very vocal in her wishes, she is just expressing a basic human trait -- the desire to skip over the difficult things in life.
There may be times that we can bypass the unenjoyable things to go to those things we like more, but generally, when we do that the bypassed things continue to sit there, just waiting for us to start on them.
So much better just to do things in the order we face them. Because Chili Soup must precede Cinnamon Rolls. Always. Just ask Victoria.
No comments:
Post a Comment