Down with the kids

Toddlers and preschoolers are hungry all the time. I figure it’s related to their frantic activity levels! If I don’t feed Big Sis and Little Bro something every 30 minutes the result is a meltdown of enormous proportions - so we never stray far from home without a carrier bag of snacks!

Visiting a friend the other day I immediately emptied the contents of my snack-bag onto her kitchen bench. It consisted of; a half eaten packet of rice cakes, some leftover watermelon from my fridge and a packet of sultanas (also half empty). My friend leaped on the sultanas - “Thank God, I’d run out of them, they’re my ‘get out of jail free card’!”

Before kids I’d visit friends with a box of Swiss chocolate, a special cake from a bakery or even a bottle of wine! Now I bring my kids and whatever (healthy) snack food I have in the cupboard, even if it’s half eaten!

As my host arranged the feast on some brightly coloured plastic Ikea plates it reminded me of those offerings you find in shop doorways in Hindu countries; pieces of fruit, tiny little meals of rice and a few incense sticks arranged on a gold or silver tray.

That’s how I’ll see it now as I gather my things together for a visit. It will be an offering, not to Ganesh or Hanuman, but to our own little elephants and cheeky monkeys - arranged for them on Swedish plastic by their faithful servants!