“This is not my favorite.”
Emily has proclaimed from the early days that she would never become a short order cook. She doesn’t take orders from me or the kids and whip up whatever we want to eat whenever we want to eat it. Instead, she prepares a meal (she’s a great cook by the way), and we eat whatever she prepares.
With the kids, we basically give them a choice. They can eat what’s in front of them, or they don’t have to eat. I know. Some may say we’re bad parents. However, we learned that kids will always eat when they’re hungry. And, by not giving them meal options, they’ve learned to enjoy all sorts of food.
But, as you can imagine, there are still some foods they don’t prefer. Here’s where the second rule comes into play. We don’t allow our kids to say, "I don’t like this." Or, "Yuck." Or, "This food makes me want to vomit." Because we want our kids growing up thinking more about the cook than themselves, we have encouraged them to use the phrase, "This is not my favorite."
This morning, after the three older kids had left for school and Emily and I were getting ready for the day, Brooke had the opportunity to watch her one episode of Dora the Explorer. Brooke is a Dora addict. At times, she’ll just blurt out the word "map" for no apparent reason.
Unfortunately, this morning there was a snafu with the Dora episode that had been recorded on the DVR. It stopped mid-adventure. Emily went into the family room to get things figured out. As she was trying to get Dora going again, the news channel was giving an update on last night’s election results. Brooke soaked in the news update for a few moments and then stated, "This is not my favorite."
With that, Brooke has cast her vote for Dora to be the next President of the United States.
I have a 3 year old and know exactly what you are saying. Boots would make a great running mate and the Map….wealth of knowledge. Dora now has my vote too!
This my be your funniest blog post of all time.
“At times, she’ll just blurt out the word “map” for no apparent reason.”
HY-sterical!!
I’ve got a 4 year old and a 3 year old, so I’m well versed in the ways of Dora. And I’ve got to disagree with you and Rich on this one…Diego is obviously the stonger candidate. Dora would fold like a tent in a debate with Diego. He hangs out with baby jaguar, she hangs out with Boots…enough said.
Your house is my house – to a ‘T!’ And… you’re obviously great parents! Say ‘Yuck’ at our table, look out! :)
We don’t record Dora though. That’s over the top. Besides, it’s OnDemand.
I love this.
Haha. I’m totally stealing that. When my youth say something inappropriate, instead of saying, “Manuel, watch your language.” “I’m gonna say, Manuel, that word…not my favorite.”
Love this! Our little guy is just 17 mos, so we’re not quite there yet, but…priceless!
This may well be my all-time favorite of any blog post you’ve ever written. Great story! Thanks for sharing.