As I’ve mentioned before, I do most of the cooking in my household. Every evening, I rush home to prepare a hot, nutritious meal for my family. The other night, I prepared some broiled chicken with a lemon glaze. I was quite proud of my dish because it was quick and easy to make. The aromas from the oven let me know that I had made a winner.
When my 8-year old daughter, Nee, bit into her piece of chicken, she screamed, “THIS CHICKEN TASTES TERRIBLE!”
I was flabbergasted.
“What’s wrong with the chicken,” I asked. I grabbed her chicken and took a bite. I discovered that her piece of chicken had some lemon zest on it and had a acquired a bitter taste. I removed the zest and told her to try it again. Reluctantly, she took a bite and deemed that it was suitable for human consumption.
I’m glad that I have thick skin or else my children’s blunt honesty would crush my spirit. However, I know that others are more sensitive than I am so I planned to teach Nee about sparing other people’s feeling.
At bedtime, I sat on her bed and asked, “How would you feel if you drew me a picture and said ‘Here Daddy. I drew this picture for you’ and I said ‘This picture is terrible’ when I looked at it?”
“I would feel really bad if you did that,” she responded.
“Well I felt really bad when you yelled, ‘This chicken tastes terrible,’” I said. “Do you want to make Daddy feel bad?”
“No,” she said demurely. “But daddy…”
“Yes, darling.”
“The chicken REALLY did taste terrible.”
Stay Strong,
P.S. – My 5-year old son was watching TV with my wife when an anti-wrinkle cream commercial came on. He turned to her and said, “Mommy, you need some of that.” I’m going to miss my son.
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