Lessons From Motherhood
Dec. 27th, 2019 02:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mama_kestrelOne of the first lessons of motherhood I learned came from my grandmother. She had grape wine for Shabbat, and grape juice for the children. My cousin, less than a year younger than I but far less amenable to reason, declared that he was a Big Boy and was going to have wine. Grandma didn't argue, she just put both containers in the refrigerator and told him we weren't drinking anything until dinner. May half an hour later, cousin D. went into the kitchen, opened the refrigerator, took out the pretty bottle and poured himself a glass. He took a drink, made a face and said it tasted just like grape juice and what was the big deal anyway?
Later on I saw my grandmother pouring wine and juice for dinner. She was pouring the grownup glasses from the pitcher, and the kid's glasses from the pretty bottle. I puzzled my 4 year old wits over that the whole way through dinner, and finally figured it out. After she sent us into the living room to build Lincoln Logs with our grandfather, she took a spare pitcher, emptied the wine bottle into, poured in the juice, and then put the wine in refrigerator in the garage. My clue was the extra pitcher in the dish drainer. She didn't argue with the preschooler, she just made sure that when he got into what he wasn't supposed to, it was harmless. Lesson: don't argue with a small child, outsmart them.
Now I'm doing something similar with my mother. I made a cake for a Chanukah dinner we'll be attending this evening, which I wanted to have stay whole and pretty. I know Mama has the self-control of a toddler; I've lost count of how many times I've said "this is for _x_ event, please don't take any before we go" only to have her take 2 or 3 pieces before it's even cooled. "No one will notice!" she insists - like the ragged gaping hole is invisible or something? (She can't cut a straight line, so there are slanting lines and crumbs everywhere.) This time I remembered the lesson. Ninety percent of the batter went into the sheet cake pan. The rest went into a little 6" layer cake pan. Half the wee cakelet is already gone before I could even frost it, but the sheet cake is intact. I'll frost it, along with what's left of the little one, when it finishes cooling.
Win!
Later on I saw my grandmother pouring wine and juice for dinner. She was pouring the grownup glasses from the pitcher, and the kid's glasses from the pretty bottle. I puzzled my 4 year old wits over that the whole way through dinner, and finally figured it out. After she sent us into the living room to build Lincoln Logs with our grandfather, she took a spare pitcher, emptied the wine bottle into, poured in the juice, and then put the wine in refrigerator in the garage. My clue was the extra pitcher in the dish drainer. She didn't argue with the preschooler, she just made sure that when he got into what he wasn't supposed to, it was harmless. Lesson: don't argue with a small child, outsmart them.
Now I'm doing something similar with my mother. I made a cake for a Chanukah dinner we'll be attending this evening, which I wanted to have stay whole and pretty. I know Mama has the self-control of a toddler; I've lost count of how many times I've said "this is for _x_ event, please don't take any before we go" only to have her take 2 or 3 pieces before it's even cooled. "No one will notice!" she insists - like the ragged gaping hole is invisible or something? (She can't cut a straight line, so there are slanting lines and crumbs everywhere.) This time I remembered the lesson. Ninety percent of the batter went into the sheet cake pan. The rest went into a little 6" layer cake pan. Half the wee cakelet is already gone before I could even frost it, but the sheet cake is intact. I'll frost it, along with what's left of the little one, when it finishes cooling.
Win!
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Date: 2019-12-28 02:08 am (UTC)- Armin