Floor Food

Parents will often tell you that they are more laid back with respect to the second child. I found that hard to believe, until the second child came along.

The first one's still here. How much harm could the second one really do to him or herself, anyway? The house is remains baby-proofed. The keys to the car are out of reach. What could go wrong? As an example of this new attitude, here's an anecdote:

With The Doctor away, a number of new resources become available here on base to help me through the separation of my family. Once a month, spouses of deployed family members are invited to a dinner with their children.

I wasn't expecting all that much, but it was a night where I didn't have to cook anything. My repertoire of easy meals for kids is running thin, anyway. So I packed up the kids and went.

The meal consisted of pizza, enchiladas and salad. There were plenty of people there ready to support me and my family. Overall, I felt welcome, which, I assume, was the point. I wish my kids were old enough to entertain themselves, so I could enjoy myself, too.

But was not to be. There were no high chairs there for my son, who had to sit on my lap the entire time. He pointed at what he wanted to eat. First, the crust off the pizza. Then pieces of the pizza. Then some salad. Then some more salad. Then he made me go back for even more salad. Then he dumped the new plate of salad all over the floor. Then he didn't want to be held anymore.

It was difficult to talk to other grown ups during this time.

But as he squirmed his way onto the floor, he retained his interest in the salad. He started picking up the leaves of lettuce and eating them off the floor.

I would never have let my daughter do this. But for the second child?

On the one hand, it is food off the floor. We're not at home, we're in a public building on the base. I have no idea how clean the floor might be.

On the other hand, the floor looks fairly clean. There aren't any roaches or mouse droppings that I can see. Furthermore, it's lettuce my son is devouring. I want to encourage him to eat his vegetables, right? The Doctor slathers greens in ranch to get the kids to eat vegetables, is eating them off the floor that much worse?

My son eats salad willingly. I put a check in the "win" column and move on.