Chocolate

The other day I was drinking tea with my neighbors and we were enjoying the usual snack foods that go with tea, one being a wafer cookie layered with chocolate cream (a lot like the ones in the States). There’s really no standard for what babies should and shouldn’t eat here, so my neighbors told me that these cookies are great for babies to suck on because the wafers dissolve immediately with their slobber. It didn’t matter how many times I said, “No, please don’t give it to him. I don’t want him to have it.” It was as if I wasn’t even there. Here, the word no doesn’t carry much weight, to say the least. To stop them I would have had to grab him, get up, and walk out. In the states I think I would have done that, but here that would have been the most culturally inappropriate thing for me to do and I would have so greatly shamed myself that my relationship with them would have screeched to a stop. Besides, these are my neighbors who live right outside my door and who I see several times a week without even intending to. So, to continue the story, they gave it to him and I watched in horror as he smeared chocolate all over his face. When small pieces began breaking off in his mouth I forced it out of his hands and began digging pieces out of his mouth, which made him scream because he loved it. What 8 month old wouldn’t love chocolate? Because he screamed they gave it right back to him and began instructing me on how to raise him. “Give him whatever he wants. If he asks for it, give it. It doesn’t matter if it’s sweet, all kids love sweets, so give it to them …” My poor baby Nate suffered through his first taste of chocolate at 8 months of age. I’m sure one day I’ll laugh. Just not today.