Overheard in the café where I sat alone having lunch today (er - I am on maternity leave, and one is supposed to relax and take care of oneself on maternity leave, right??):Two sisters bent over the ice-cream counter, deciding which flavour to order:
the older one is naming the flavours, and the younger one, who can't be older than four, says:
"Oh no, not that one. It looks like it's got loads of food colouring in it..."
At first this little exchange made me smile, and then I wondered: is this actually funny, reassuring or tragic??
I can't decide.
Or maybe I can.
If one of my own kids makes this kind of comment in a couple of years, how will I feel?
If you know me well, you will know that this is exactly the kind of comment that one of my kids could plausibly make at age four!
But now for the first time, I'm starting to think this might not be so commendable. Sure, it's good to have a healthy attitude to food, but maybe our kids (as a generation) deserve a few more years respite before they know so much about food colouring, additives, calories, swine flu, global warning and nuclear proliferation (etc, etc.) that they're afraid to even choose an ice-cream?
What do you think?
2 comments:
I couldn't agree more.... It's the parents' job to worry about stuff like that, not the kids'. The magic of childhood is being persistently eroded from all sides.
Although, as a parent, you sometimes have to tread a fine line; some kids are happy with the fairytale while others just seem to want the plain, unvarnished truth.
I remember one little girl who, on finding out that Father Christmas wasn't real, was extremely annoyed with mummy and daddy for "tricking her"!
I wonder who that strange child could be...!!
No plain truths just yet for BB, though...
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