On becoming a scavenger

[Fat Guy]

I try not to overburden the forums with parenting-related topics -- it's always irritating to me when writers become parents and suddenly become unable to write about anything but the minutiae of child rearing -- but today I was reflecting on a pattern of behavior I've developed and I just had to share:

I've become a scavenger.

That is to say, several of my meal choices each week are dictated by what my son, PJ, leaves behind on his plate or in his school-lunch bag. Every time I pick him up from school I tear into his lunch bag to see what's left. After his meals at home or in a restaurant I often eat the rest of what's on his plate.

And lately, I've started trying to rig the process. For example, today I reheated some barbecued chicken for him. I intentionally reheated more than he could possibly eat, knowing I'd get a leg in the bargain.

Why didn't I just make myself a plate of chicken? If you have to ask...

[judiu]

FG, are you losing weight on this regimen? After all, every mother will tell you that there are no calories in the food you finish from your kid's plate...

[jgm]

My father used to give in to his granddaughter's requests for chocolate from his "stash", mainly because he knew she'd share it with him.

One particularly memorable time when I watched the interaction between them, Julie played with the still-wrapped bar for several minutes, oblivious to her grandfather's growing impatience. Finally he asked her, "well, aren't you going to open it?", trying very hard to keep the irritation out of his voice.

"I just want to smell it for awhile," she insisted. Then she looked up at him with those grandpa-killer eyes and said, "Know what, Grandpa? Sometimes I think of these in the night."

It was another half hour before he got a bite of chocolate, but it was made more endurable since he was provided with a cute story to tell his friends.