What to expect, insanity!

Stripes and neon

Every time we go to the local Chinese restaurant, usually on birthdays, my kids do the same thing. Every. Single. Time.

Here’s a basic callsheet…

They ask for steamed rice.

They ask for water.

They refuse the most delicious salt and pepper prawns.

They refuse the fresh perfectly cooked Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce.

They refuse the green tea.

Then, they take their shoes off in the restaurant.

And they go and see the fish and lobsters in the tank.

They make a mess.

So why do they get so excited about going for dinner here? It really doesn’t sound like much fun, does it?

It certainly isn’t fun for us parents who feel annoyed, frustrated, stressed, and deflated. Hoping that this time will be the one that some nutrients and some flavour is consumed. Hoping that they will sit still and converse with us, hoping that we don’t leave apologising for the mess, hoping that this time it’ll be different. We’ve been to this restaurant numerous times over the years with the kids, they should know better!

But the kids don’t want it to be different. They know that they want. It happens. Every time. Every. Single. Time. Expectations met.

The problem is us. Our expectations are different. On reflection, we are probably trying to fit the kids into a grown up world. We’ve been to this restaurant numerous times with the kids, we should know better!

Yes, we should know better! Albert Einstein might say we are actually insane. Famously saying: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.”

I would much rather go to our birthday restaurant and have the kids’ experience rather than mine. So, next time I will be ok with their dress code of no-shoes (it’s not how I was brought up, but we’re not exactly in a hatted restaurant); I will be ok with them racing past tables and wait staff to visit the fish in the tanks (it is pretty fascinating – it’s just an aquarium to them, not the discomfort of death row); I will be ok with the rice and water dinner (hey, it’s cheaper!); I will be ok with the food mess (the other day I saw another family who had made an even bigger mess than us and I felt relief, it happens to us all, for many, many years).

It ain’t worth crying over spilt rice.

Stripes and trees xxx