Mountain Momma Musings

To the little person we saw at the store yesterday, thank you.

Thank you for helping me to get my son to eat something besides pizza and PB&J sandwiches.

Before I proceed any further and get accused of being insensitive, let me make one thing clear: this post is in no way meant to offend the vertically-challenged. I swear.

With that out of the way, I will proceed. We were in the grocery store when a little person walked by. This being the first time Kaiden had seen an adult of that size, he pointed at her and asked, “Mom, isn’t she a grown up? Why is she so small?”

I said: “Kaiden, you don’t point at people who are different than you. That makes them feel uncomfortable. People come in all shapes and sizes and that just makes them different, not weird. Next time, instead of pointing, ask me.”

There, I thought, I had seized the moment to teach my son one of his first lesson’s about respecting people who are different. What a good mother I am.

But wait.  This moment presented another opportunity. It was slightly deceitful, but if telling little lies isn’t part of parenting, than I don’t know what is.

I couldn’t resist. “You know, sometimes adults are small because they didn’t eat good as a child so they didn’t grow.”

That got Kaiden’s attention.

“Really, mom????”

“Yes, really. So you need to try more things, OK?”

It must have worked, because that night at dinner, after consuming his usual meal of pizza and fruit, Kaiden announced that he wanted to try foods that were green. Just green. Why that color I have no idea,  I was just glad he didn’t say black. I about shit in my pants when he actually took a bite of asparagus, followed by cucumber, then a tomato (it was yellow, but he agreed to make an exception). Avocados, however, were a no-go.

So, bite by bite, Kaiden expanded his diet by a few foods. I don’t think he is all of a sudden going to start asking for an asparagus pizza or cucumber sandwich, but at least he tried. That’s half the battle, right?

So, to the wonderful but small woman who walked by our cart at the store on Wednesday, you may be only 4 feet tall, but to me, you are an angel.