There is a standard conversation between parents and young children that goes on at mealtimes across the country- and probably has done for many, many years. The essence of the discussion is the parents incomprehension at a fact which seems entirely obvious to a child. That is, that it is completely possible to be "too full to up to eat any more vegetables", whilst simultaneously desiring a voluminous desert. This lunchtime I pressed my young son Norris, for an explanation of this phenomenon. The response he gave was, well thought through, logically coherent, certainly persuasive and biologically revolutionary.
He described his anatomy thus:
"When I put food in my mouth it goes down past my throat, but then the pipe splits into two and things like beans and broccoli and carrots go one side, but things like cakes and sweets and chocolate mousse goes the other side. So when one side is full up and I can't eat any more vegetables, I am still hungry for cake, because that side is really empty!"
An X-ray of Norris' body revealed the following findings, demonstrating his point.
4 comments:
He is quite right. Our children have often commented that their pudding tummy is still empty.
Fantastic - such insight!
Mrs D has talked about the existence of pudding stomachs for many years - and she has an anatomy degree, so it must be true!
As an aside - where do you find the time to update your blog, with three children to tend to?!!
Such a convincing argument; for a minute there, I thought young Norris was thinking to be a politician or a lawyer... ;)
My 5 children clearly lack the boldness of young Norris! Regarding their handling of this situation, they have all adopted the same basic approach, which is to indicate that my wife or I have given them too much food. This implies, of course, that it is our fault and that they should not be punished for our mistake. The only flaw in their logic revolves around the fact that they use this argument even when they have dished up their own plate of food...
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