ask me again in a couple years
We went berry picking this morning, and it went alot better than the last time. We were better prepared with carrying devices, and Harvey was better prepared with an appreciation for berries and also goats, which provided him with amusement after we decided that he had eaten enough blueberries for his little tummy. That's good parenting, unlike some of the other examples we saw.
And I tell ya, nothing brings out the worst in parents like berry picking under a hot sun. Some wonderful displays of family togetherness and enthusiasm, sure, but just as much unproductive nagging, threatening, and hitting children who aren't as into the whole agriculture thing as their parents. To be fair, the parent who smacked her kid did it because he had just hit his cousin; that'll teach him not to hit, right? If you don't want to escalate all the way to physical punishment, there's always threatening to deny your little monster the traditional post-picking doughnuts (blueberry this season, and delicious!), and, once you've already told him that he's not getting the doughnut and he's still not listening, threatening to take back the toys you gave him yesterday. Is it worth it to get your blueberries at below-market rate? I say yes!
Of course, we're never going to do anything like that because we're perfect parents. We showed him what berries to pick ("not the green ones!" resounding from all corners of the farm) and gently discouraged him from pulling off leaves and stems; we allowed him to eat a representative number of berries, but not go nuts; and we provided him with an enjoyable alternative when his interest in berry-picking flagged (though his interest in berry eating was unchanged, if not stronger than before). And we'll give him some of the jam from the berries we picked, because, again unlike last year, I was able to get myself going to make both raspberry and blueberry jam the same day we picked. I also made bread this afternoon for my precious darling son to eat. Are there any parenting awards that I'm eligible for?