Strategic Play and Dinner

I needed to cook dinner this afternoon (Which, by the way, after writing about it this morning and craving it, I made Pork and Spinach with Egg and Lemon Sauce), and Ali is going through a rather clingy stage, due to neverending teething. She played for a little while, but then kept saying “Mommy Hold You!!”.

I decided to try out some “Michael & Debi Pearl” wisdom. Now, for those of you who are aware of their books (“To Train Up a Child”, and other books published by No Greater Joy Ministries), you are probably also aware that they are a bit controversial. I really enjoy a lot of their writings, more so on the marriage side (“Created to be His Help Meet” is awesome), but definitely have some issues with a FEW of their child-raising techniques. (My least favorite part of their writings is their seemingly arrogant stance that if you do things their exact way, your children will be perfect little angels, but if you don’t, they’ll be horrid.) However, as with most child training books, if you can sift through and use what works for you, they do have a LOT of wisdom.

Anyway, with that being said, one of the Pearl’s big tenets is to not give children mindless toys to play with, but rather give them the same thing you are doing and let them “play” at being just like you. I love their stories about people who work in No Greater Joy’s shipping department that bring their toddlers to work every day, and they are completely consumed all day, every day with tape and boxes because they are pretending to do what Mommy or Daddy is doing. That thought makes me laugh.

I don’t think that anything, no matter how much it was like Mommy or Daddy, would keep Ali’s attention all day, and CERTAINLY NOT all day, every day.

So I decided to try this idea with cooking. I gave Ali a pan, two spoons, and animal crackers in her pan. I showed her how to stir them like Mommy, and sat her to work cooking.

She enjoyed it for a few minutes, then felt the need to taste-test her concoction.

And taste some more. . .

Upside: It actually did work for long enough to get phase one of dinner made, which was great.

Downside: she ate every one of those animal crackers and so then was not hungry for dinner.

Maybe I should have used something less appetizing like uncooked rice.

At any rate, here was our lovely dinner, fit for a King, if only I had also made Chocolate Truffle Cheesecake. Oh yes, and the Dolmades. And Tzatziki and Hummous Dips.

Oh nevermind. Here is dinner: