Saturday, April 27, 2013

Negligent Parenting Redressed

 

It was some time in the afternoon one day when the subject of roasted marshmallows came up.  As it does around autumn time.  And if it doesn't, I suggest you start re-prioritising things in your life to offer this important topic its due importance.

Anyway, it was when Ted expressed his ignorance about this particular delicacy that I felt the cold, reviled shudder of negligent parenting pass over me. How could my son have reached the ripe old age of four, without yet experiencing that delicious sensation of sucking charcoal straight off a melted sugar morass?

So it was a task to bring to bear.  But how?  I was ready to build a firepit in the backyard but then I remembered how much it had cost to lay the grass.  And I had a feeling that my initial commitment and enthusiasm for the firepit might not be quite as great when we dealt with ongoing issues of rolled ankles and broken legs when the children played chasing games in our small grassy patch plus pit.

On to more temporary structures then.  I investigated terracotta pot options, which seemed cute but with a boisterous and pyro-fearless child combined with a child who shrieks with concern when a glass of water may be spilled (you have to guess which personality type belongs to which child) the idea of having something with fire that sat high above the ground didn't seem so appealing.

And then, whilst innocently strolling the aisles to buy frozen blueberries, I passed a stand selling aluminium roasting trays.  For the princely sum of two dollars.  And my marshmallow roasting was ON like Donkey Kong!

 
Ted was...well, he was pretty excited.  The allure of parent-sanctioned sugar was giving him a psychological sugar rush before the physiological hyperglycaemia even had a chance to occur.

 
Without firelighters it was a slow start, but I did manage to procure some bbq bricks and we had plenty of boxes lying around ready to rip up and set fire to (rubs hands with maniacal glee).


It was interesting to watch the children sit directly in the stream of smoke.  We had to overtly tell them that they needed to move out of the way of the smoke.  Hmmm...

But they loved it.  And so did I - it was so fun to have an impromptu backyard smoking marshmallow fire.  And Ted was thrilled to finally be able to purchase a brightly coloured plastic bag of prepackaged food.  But burnt sugar over a smoky fire at the last minute on a school night?  Well that's just great all 'round.

I love it when we have these little adventures.  In fact our life has been pretty full of little adventures these past few weeks, which is why I haven't been blogging.  This happened about two weeks ago and I have blog posts waiting to be written about things from before then too.


Note to self: must create time travel machine in next family adventure.

No comments: