Are you hungrier than a 5-year-old?
I doubt you are hungrier than my 5-year-old!
Let me preface this by saying when we moved 2 years ago into our new house the first thing we did was re-do part of the kitchen to allow for a much bigger fridge for Stewie. The fridge that came with the house was not going to be enough for the 6 of us (Me, Urban Mummy, Linus, Stewie, Berry and our Nanny – let’s call her “Gamay”), but we were most concerned about Stewie! This boy can eat and he’s only 5. He’ll eat us out of house and home by the time he is 13-years-old.
For example, in the car on our way up to T&T grocery in the Promenade Mall in lovely Thornhill, Ontario on the weekend Ms. Urban Daddy was engaging the children, asking them what they wanted to be when they grew up when Stewie bubbled up and asked if there were going to be “samples” at T&T? His mind is almost always on food.
As an aside, if you have never been to a T&T grocery store, you must go there! There is a location in the Promenade Mall in Thornhill. and one on Cherry beach in downtown Toronto. T&T is owned by Loblaws and they carry Asian foods. Our children love T&T because of the samples they give out during the day and for the fresh dim sum and sushi they make which we pretty much always buy and eat for lunch or afternoon snack.
When the kids hear T&T they know they’re going to eat while we shop and since the samples are of things we hope our kids will want to eat, like tofu, fish balls, dumplings, and many other unique items we would never think to include in our very healthy diet.
Instead of buying a product, like fish balls, for example and experimenting at home, the kids can give thumbs up and thumbs down to them on the spot and if they like it and will eat it, we can buy it. It makes a lot of sense and is a great way to expand any child’s food options.
The sample stations at T&T are usually manned and the kids know to ask nicely and in return they are given one sample to try unless there are different flavours and they want to try them too. I won’t let them try coffee, or sweets or anything we will not purchase – like pork products – but we have tried some pretty crazy samples over the years.
The one sample per station rule works for everyone except Stewie – who already at 5 eats more in a meal that his 5 foot 11, 230 pound father (me). At the store he tries pretty much everything and if he likes it – and if the food station is unmanned, he’ll eat and eat and eat until someone catches him. He always uses a new toothpick, he’s a bit of a clean freak that way, and he’s not a pig eating everything he just casually takes another, then another with a giant smile on his face. Free food!
That penchant for eating reminded me of our last cruise.
The last cruise we went on, when the off shore excursion was to the cruise lines private island, we got up, ate a huge breakfast, then hopped on the tender to the island. By 9am we were baking in the hot sun, playing in the sand with the shells and laying on a raft.letting the tide take us away, when out of nowhere, Stewie started to get VERY agitated.
It was not just past 10:30am and the anger turned to frustration, which turned to tears.
We brought him back to the beach chair and spoke with him about what was bothering him. The sun? The heat? The sand?
It was none of those.
He was hungry.
Fortunately, the cruise ship was setting up a lunch buffet on the island and were almost done getting it ready, so Ms. Urban Mummy walked over and came back with some fruit, some veggies and some water.
But Stewie did not want any of that…
So all of us walked over to the buffet and immediately, Stewie saw what he wanted.
“I want a burger!” he proclaimed.
“At 10:30am?” I questioned.
“Yes! I want a burger!!!” he said, with his voice borderline agitated, frustrated and again close to tears.
“Okay” we said and by 10:45am after a huge breakfast 2 hours earlier, Stewie was eating a burger. We could see his demeanor changing as he was eating it. There were some blood sugar levels dipping here. But good little Stewie was not done with his first burger… He needed a second one, which he ate quite happily if my memory serves me correctly. He was still 4-years-old at this time, too.
Then after being burned to a crisp, we headed back to the ship for nap time for Stewie and Berry at which point, Stewie started to put up a stink as he was, “hungry”.
So I took him upstairs to the buffet and we sat at he ate yet more food.
Man can that kid pack away the food.
I should have seen this coming. This is the same kid who at about 1 1/2 years old was sitting in his high chair at a family resort just north of Toronto eating a meal – soup I believe – and very slowly, when the waitress came and took away the inch left in his bowl. He did NOT like this and spent the rest of the week with his head on a swivel and every time a waitress walked near the table – ours or others – and he would wag his pointer finger and say, “Never , ever, ever take Stewie’s food away”.
Possessive a little?
His behaviour there came to light in his little sister last week when we at dinner at Safari on Avenue Road in Toronto, when 2-year-old Berry needed to go pee. She looked back at the table and said, “don’t touch my food”, “don’t let anyone take my food”, “I’m still eating”. and she kept mumbling “I’m still eating” over and over again as she walked to the bathroom. When she returned and her food was still there, she smiled and with a look of relief on her face, she said, “Oh! My food is still here. I came back, and my food is still here!”.
But back to Stewie… There was the time we went to St. Thomas, Ontario to see and take a ride on Thomas the Tank Engine and Stewie was probably 3-years-old. After a full day of fun we went out for dinner to – of course – the Mandarin Restaurant. After eating a pretty large meal, matching me plate for plate, I went to get a soup to wind down my meal and with that soup I grabbed 2 teriyaki shrimp to eat.
Stewie finishing his second bowl of soup too, turned to me nd said, “I want shrimp!”.
How did he know what shrimp were?
Okay, so I went back to the buffet and brought him back 2 peeled shrimp. He stuffed them in his mouth so fast, Urban Mummy couldn’t take a picture of him eating them.
He finished and asked for more.
After bringing him another 10 shrimps, we were laughing as were the elderly couple sitting beside us watching how much food this boy has packed away. Figuring he should stop before he explodes, I brought him teriyaki shrimp instead but he loved those too.
So fast forward now, and we’re all finished eating, when Stewie after finishing his 32nd shrimp declares that he is full.
We gasp, and pack up the family feeling sorry for the Mandarin who made money on the few noodles that Linus ate but lost a ton of the massive amounts of food that my skinny 3-year-old just hoovered back.
That trait remains to this day.
Just last week Urban Mummy made mini-pizza’s for the family. 5 small ones for Linus and Berry to split, 3 for her, 3 for me and 3 for Stewie. She ate 1 and a half. I managed to eat 2 – but probably should have stopped at 1 and a half as well, while Stewie ate all three and needed a snack before bed.
And yes, we have had him tested for worms.
He’s fine.
He’s hungry.
He’s a growing boy!
Like this:
One blogger likes this post.
(adaddyblog.com)
You want feedback? Let me tell you what I think about you and your blogging…
I for one, like feedback. I’m a big boy. I’m tough. I can take it.
I can take ”feedback” or criticism, whatever you want to call it and not let it bother me… Too much.
In learning how to take feedback I have also learned how and when to give feedback. It’s an art, I tell you and let me state the obvious when I tell you that there are not too many people who can take feedback, and even fewer who can deliver it without the intent on offending or making the receiver feel inferior.
I actually started this post quite a while ago as a personal reflection post but I didn’t like the feel of the post, so I shelved it in my draft folder and have re-visited it several times to re-write it and alter its focus dramatically. It’s not a post about me so much as it is a reflection about my management style and they way I like to interact with others – staff and children.
But let’s be clear here folks, this is in no way a “how to manage your spouse” post because we all know our wives are always right! Happy wife = happy life.
So how does one learn to give effective and timely feedback? By asking for and hearing lots of it over one’s life. good and bad, true and untrue,,, I’ve heard it all. In that time I learned the hard way that being a wise-ass or inappropriate in pretty much every situation makes it hard to make / keep friends and after a while people start talking about you in that light, they tend to start avoiding you. That feedback is the untold kind, and you have to pick up on that too, or you’re in big trouble. (ahem, Linus!)
For me, the defining moment when I was in high-school, and I said something really stupid to my friends which resulted in them all looking at me like I just hurt a kitten. It was at that moment when it became perfectly clear to me that I had to be accountable for what comes out of my mouth at all times and that I had offended or worse, hurt, the ones I care for and to that, my success would be in my ability to filter the crap that comes out of my mouth, and to learn to not take myself too seriously.
I taught myself to cover up in situations where I was a complete ass by pretending I had said that comment on purpose, as a joke, when in fact I was learning boundaries, and in learning from my missteps, I made sure to never do it again. Not repeating the same embarrassing situation to the same person was critical to me being taken seriously. I wanted to be taken seriously and that motivated me to watch my mouth.
So back on to feedback. I never wanted to hear feedback from anyone growing up because it was always bad. I was immature, goofy, inappropriate, juvenile… I heard it all. But as I figured out how to act around people, I wanted to know how I was doing. Kind of like, “how is my driving”.
The more I asked, the more I was able to improve and right now, I’m pretty damn strategic and I know what to say, when to say and how to address it. It was hard but I’ve done it. I should write a book, eh? I have some great stories I cannot post online!
So now, I crave feedback. All kinds of it. I want the bad stuff more than I want the good stuff. I want to be told I’m an asshole, or that I’ve pissed someone off because I’ve spent a lot of time being so good that every now and then my inner-bitch comes out and I let it all hang out. I’m sorry. I need to know. If I’ve annoyed you, or pissed you off, it’s either a gigantic misunderstanding or it was done on purpose. If you want to know, just ask me, I’ll tell you.
When I started blogging, my wife had been doing it for a year and she is such a fantastic writer. When I read her posts, I could replay the situation in my head as if it were happening then and there. I’m not so blessed with that skill and when people found out we were married they were shocked at how well she wrote and how poorly I did. I knew it. It was true and quite funny actually. So I started re-reading my posts, spell-checking it and taking general care for my posts. All it took was some feedback.
So when I get comments to my blog (or about my blog or blogging in general), like this one coming up, I tend to smile and want to keep it. I’m proud of getting stuff like this. Not only is it creative, but it’s downright funny. True too…
Comment 1: “This is pointless, why am I even reading it and not enjoying ? I should learn to spend my time better.”
Comment 2: “I realize you were young and inexperienced at the time, but in hindsight you should have chosen your parents more wisely.”
I also remember a “friend” of mine hoping to tell me what he truly thought about me by posting a comment in a much older post – figuring I would never see it – which went something like this;
“You are the most arrogant piece of shit that I have ever met.”
Yes. Yes, I was… to you. If you had only asked me, I would have told you myself.
Or the friend who told me he hates my blog – never reads it and things bloggers – and myself – are narcacisstic. I thought about it, blogged about it and dismissed it. Do we all not take pride in what we do? .
If you want to post a comment about how you really feel, do it. Please don’t make yourself anonymous, however, it’s better to identify yourself so I know what I’m facing. You will feel better and I will know who I don’t have to worry about being nice to. It’s okay. I’m always civil.
What is useless to be is the guy who comments on a pro-Rob Ford post with, “You’re a fucking idiot”.
Why thank you, was my thought. Some left-wing primate made his way through my article and took the time to comment. I replied back thanking him for the comment, that I was not an idiot – at least I didn’t think I was – and I merely presented the facts as they seemed to me and if he didn’t agree with my view he could have explained why and educated me instead of calling me names. Good thing he didn’t know I was overweight like the Ford’s (although no where near the same size as them) because he would have said, “You’re a fucking idiot… and you’re fat”.
So if you take anything from this article it should be that when you’re giving feedback use some diplomacy. give some positive feedback, and some negative. If you blast the negative, you’re getting negative back right at you. If you have something to say, just say it but keep in mind how it will be perceived by others, mainly the author of the post, but also take into consideration that it’s possible that many other have thought and felt the way you have about an article but by having the character to post that comment you may attract more readers, and you may be voicing the opinions of other as well.
Good comments beget good comments. When people take the time to comment on posts knowing their thoughts and opinions are going to stay in the comment section and not be deleted (except in cases of malicious attacks) then they will take the time to comment more and more. If you delete them or jam garbage down their throats then you can rest assure they will not be coming back.
So please… comment what you feel. Not only on my posts but on others What is the worst things someone can do? send you an email or post a reply to your comment calling you names? Been there, done that. It’s going to take a lot more than being called names to get me to back off my opinions.
Have any of you received really harsh comments or feedback? Feel free to share here.
Related articles
Share this:
Like this:
Posted by Urban Daddy on March 27, 2012 in Life
Tags: authority, blog, blogging, commenting, diplomacy, facebook, feedback, giving feedback, managing, receiving feedback, twitter, urban daddy, wordpress