I Told My Son Not To Share Too Much…

We’re all about kindness and sharing in our house.

Well I am anyway, and I’m trying to bestow these qualities upon our two little boys, who are (as little boys are) mostly all about trucks, trains, bikes and mud. I say mostly because our Big Bro is becoming one of the kindest kids I know who quite likes to share and the Little Bro is naturally following suit.

It makes me want to give myself a pat on the back, or a big shiny parenting medal actually, to make up for all the days that I feel like I’m failing!

Big Bro’s caring and sharing really came to the forefront of his personality recently, and unfortunately, to the detriment of his health on a family road trip recently. The boy’s Nanna had taken a holiday to Tasmania and we were going to the airport with Poppy to pick her up. Big Bro was all sorts of excited from the get-go. Not only was he getting boosted from school early to go to get his beloved Nanna, he was going to see big aeroplanes and go to the big shops. When you live in a small country town, the big aeroplanes and big shops are a big thing! The icing on the cake was that it was tuckshop day at school for his class and he got to eat his before I collected him at midday. “I’m going to save my blueberry muffin for Nanna” he proudly announced before I dropped him off.

And he did just that.

I wasn’t too concerned that he hadn’t eaten enough for himself as he’d had a banana for fruit snack and then his sausage roll for tuckshop lunch but offered crackers and such snacks that we keep in the car in case he was still hungry. He said he was fine.

“I had my pineapple juice too but I saved a bit because it’s your favourite Mumma” Oh my goodness, more sharing! I was seriously chuffed.

So during lots of excited chatting on the way I said we’d get a nice afternoon tea at the big shops, but didn’t realise getting through the highway traffic, parking and finally getting upstairs to the big shops would take nearly 3 hours”¦and of course the kids wanted nothing to do with food when there were toy stores to check out!

Everyone seemed to be coping quite well so I didn’t insist we all stop, drop and roll to the food court immediately. Rookie error would be my first thought if it were my first time leaving the house, but I’m no rookie when it comes to low blood sugar levels of small children, mothers and grandparents”¦I can only say that I had a moment of sheer recklessness and stupidity it would seem!

We made it to about the checkouts before my Big Bro (who at six years old is still very little) made his discomfort quite obvious to the whole area by beginning to lose his shit. I looked questioningly at Poppy (who is my Dad and quite used to all kinds of odd childhood behaviour) and straight away it hit me!

Food! Quickly! Now!

After making a mad dash to the other end of the shopping centre (why so far away food court”¦why?)  we had to split up because one child wanted donuts and milkshakes and the other wanted chicken and chips. I don’t know what happened along the way, but I distinctly remember Big Bro must have been upset over something else because his tear-filled eyes are still burning a permanent image in my mind and heart!

I ordered food and waited for this nightmare to be over, but alas the after school line-up for sugar-laden cola slushies was seriously slowing its progress. Eventually food was in my hand and as I thought this couldn’t get any worse I remembered my own penchant for getting shaky when I get low on fuel and also that my Dad is a diabetic. Shit. I ordered more food and waited again. Of course it was now time to get in the car in order to get to the airport stat, so we made our way quickly to the car park (two wrong turns in the big shops shit, shit, shit!) whilst popping food into little mouths and finally got the kids settled and eating properly. Except that Big Bro shared his with Little Bro.

Why didn’t I order the largest possible meal available? Seriously what was I thinking?

The story has a happy and fairly uneventful ending thankfully, Nanna was safely delivered to us (we were a little late), the boys got to see not only big planes but a big train as well and we had more chicken and chips for dinner that night. Phew.

Now when my sharing and caring Big Bro offers to save some of his tuckshop for his family, I kindly thank him but make sure he understands he should eat his food himself if he feels like it”¦I also put extra snacks in even on tuckshop day. This week when I asked how his lunch was he answered with a little grin “So delicious, I loved the apple pie so much, I couldn’t save any sorry. But I did save you some of my pineapple juice. You know, because it’s your favourite!” What a kid huh?

And it sure is my favourite buddy, perfect over ice with a little of mummy’s special drink in it”¦because I’m fresh out of big shiny parenting medals!