Chicken I Am!!!!

I need to mention a few things about Thanksgiving Dinner yesterday. Yes, it was incredible being with my family and very dear friends for the first time in two years. I am eternally grateful for the opportunity and I am doing my very best to make the most of each and every day. There were a few things that I noticed and most notably my children’s eating habits came to the forefront. I have mentioned in the past that my children’s eating habits aren’t the best and really they haven’t stood a chance since birth! My eating habits are borderline insanity and my wife’s whose eating habits are much more liberal aren’t the very best either. Combine these two and are children really never had a chance!!

My daughter is exactly like I was when I was her age (10 years old) when it comes to eating. She even makes the same faces I made and still make to this day. I really should give her a free pass but yesterday I needed to be a “father” even though it was Thanksgiving. My wife is not pleased when we put the food on our children’s plates and they refuse to eat most of what is on the plate. Yesterday this was exactly the case and I wanted to see how far my children needed to be pushed in order to eat what was on their plates. My son wouldn’t be compromised and his Thanksgiving dinner only consisted of eating corn and some bread. He didn’t care about the punishment which was no dessert last night and the three nights following. I told him that the he wouldn’t get any dessert if he didn’t eat everything on his plate and he answered; “okay.” He only ate what he wanted (the corn and bread) and understood he wouldn’t be receiving any dessert.

My daughter was a little more “cooperative” in a sense; whereas she understood the punishment and really wanted dessert. However; since she is so much like me when it comes to food it took her about an hour and a half to eat 75% of the food on their plate. The whole time she kept saying; “why can’t I be normal?” I had to laugh when she said this and assured her that she will be fine and it was her brain limiting her food consumption. We both agreed we are similar in our approach to food and my daughter then told me she didn’t want to be a vegetarian but went on to say; “yes, I want to be a vegetarian.” I assured her that she would find her way in the near future when it comes to food but in the meantime she needs to expand her palate.

I really have no idea what to do and I am sure I added a few years of “therapy” to my children’s lives yesterday especially when my son sat through dessert not being allowed to take part in the pumpkin pie or apple pie. I know my parents did the very best and never forced me to eat anything even if I suggested that I would jump out the window in lieu of eating the meatloaf!! I fully admit I am a freak when it comes to food and I am fairly certain my daughter is going down this road. My son does have more variety in his diet compared to his sister but when he doesn’t want to do something (which is rare thank God!) he doesn’t do it as was witnessed yesterday. This may have been a memorable Thanksgiving in more ways than one!!

In the evening we played games which consisted of my “favorite” (NOT!!) Pictionary and I am artistically (drawing) challenged. My brain has an idea what to draw but my hands cannot make any sense of that mental picture. I don’t even know how to draw a bunch of grapes that doesn’t resemble circles!! Nonetheless we had a wonderful time with our dear friends and the evening was a success as was the entire day.

This morning with no work scheduled I made my way to the gym much later than normal. This proved to be auspicious in the sense that I saw someone I hadn’t seen since my release over nine months ago. This is the person I had seen a few times prior to my sentence and a person I do owe a huge apology to. I was just talking about this person over the weekend to my friend who I hadn’t talked to in almost 4 years. I was told that I must make the first move because this other person won’t. I was on the treadmill when I noticed this person and took a deep breath. I wasn’t about to jump off the treadmill to just say hello so I continued my workout.

As I continued I played out the scenarios in my head and came to the conclusion that it just didn’t matter what I did. If I said hello and the person didn’t want anything to do with me then so be it; if I said hello and the person started to talk to me then so be it and finally if I did nothing then so be it. I was going to say hello but my lack of courage got the best of me and I decided just to leave things alone. There may be another opportunity in the upcoming future and frankly I am surprised that this was the first time I had seen this person so there should be more encounters. I will do what is best at the time and today it was best for me to just head home from the gym without saying anything. Yes, I am a chicken and I admit it!!