Tuesday, September 14, 2010

A happy family eats and vomits

Last night was dinner with dear friends.
A man, a woman, a daughter and a son.
It is a happy family and the children therefore are in balance and not screaming.

They had an interesting anecdote to tell about how they organize their family life concerning eating.
Every day another member of the family can say what will be for dinner.
So, the young daughter may say on Monday: pancakes!!!
And on Tuesday the father says: Indian curry with lamb.
While on Wednesday the son wants: lasagna.
Finally on Thursday Mama wishes to eat: lentil soup.
And then the cycle continues with the young daughter again.

There are some rules though.
The family members cannot chose each time for the same dish.
Otherwise every four days it would be pancakes.
And second but most important rule is that every person is committed to actually eat the food that is served.
That can be tough, especially for the kids but they courageously go for this fabulous idea because there is a reward: every four days they can personally chose what to eat.

While talking to the children about this amazing communal composing of the daily menu they told an additional surprising thing.
The boy vomits when he has to eat the favorite dish of his sister.
And the sister has to vomit when she has to eat the favorite dish of her brother.
They are funny, kids.

You don’t need to be a psychologist to sense that this vomiting is a thing not coming from the stomach but from the mind.
Therefore, the two kids were asked if they had any idea why they had to vomit from each other’s favorite food.
They had no clue.
They were asked why they would not vomit from their parent’s favorite food.
They didn’t know either: they just stared into eternity.
Like life is a mysterious thing that is impossible to understand and magically makes you vomit sometimes.
But they are happy and very nice kids nevertheless.





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