Breakfast for the Masses

I do not have morning children. Every morning at seven o'clock my babies greet the world with wailing and gnashing of teeth. And when faced with the prospect of actually eating food at that hour, they are inconsolable. 'There is nothing nice to eat,' they wail. 'We're not having breakfast.'

Thus begins the daily tussle of wills, me trying to get them out of the house with full bellies, them determined that no evil breakfast will pass their lips. They have a choice of porridge, cereal, toast, yoghurt, fruit. What is their problem? I have had one slice of wholemeal toast with vegemite and a cup of tea for breakfast my entire adult life. The Boy, who clearly has similar genes, has eaten five weetbix every morning since he was about twelve. Before that, he ate two. The Girl and The Man ring the changes between the above choices with no complaints, but the wee girls just won't play the game.

A couple of weeks ago I was reading my old homeschooling friend Jen's Blog, and she had published a weekly menu with cooked breakfasts. Outrageous, I thought, nothing wrong with vegemite and toast. Then another friend, Monique, commented the other day about her fried fruit porridge breakfast. Now this is the woman who is travelling around Australia in a caravan with three little girls. And they are cooking breakfast! I felt I might be running out of excuses. Then yesterday morning Posy tearfully begged for pancakes. She felt that she might be able to choke down breakfast if it was pancakes...

So at seven o'clock this morning I was frying pancakes and two girls sort of bounced out of bed. There was no crying, and even a couple of smiles. And I quite liked it too. The family ate breakfast around the table, with placemats, and homegrown lemons in wedges, and sugar and cream. Usually, the little girls sit at the breakfast bar, crying and whingeing while I slap sandwiches together at the bench. This felt altogether more civilised than our normal morning routine. Tomorrow, I think we'll have apple crumble with blueberries.

The TV ban is still in place. Posy has been home from school for an hour. She made paper cones for her popcorn snack. The table is covered in popcorn, paper and sticky tape. She is about to put some oil and water in a glass to see if oil and water really does mix...

Comments

Monique said…
Do let Eleanor know that Elise's alarm goes off in the middle of the night (540!), she has to make the lunches for all three of them, and then be ready to walk to the end of the drive at 715 to catch the school bus!!! The homeopathic melancholic cure.. (find somebody in a worse situation!!!)... :) Have given my blog up for dead.. at least for a few months... but enjoying yours as always xx

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