How children view what is fun...

Wow! Did I miss the boat on this one. At the end of the week in Texas, I had 3 days to play with my grandchildren in California. I was tired after my big week in Texas so I decided to take the children out for every meal. The last night we had together, I said, in my best, fun, grandma voice, "Hey, I have a great idea. Let's have a progressive dinner."

"What's that?"

"Well, you have each course of the meal at a different restaurant. You start at one restaurant and have appetizers and then you go to another restaurant and have soup or salad..."

"We don't like Souper Salad."

"No, not the restaurant Souper Salad, you get your choice if you want soup or salad."

"I don't like soup or salad."

"Okay, you don't have to have anything at that restaurant."

"I will put 4 pieces of paper in a hat and we will each draw out one of the courses for the meal. Then you get to pick what restaurant we will go to for your part of the meal."

"I get P.F. Chang."

"Wait until you find out what course you get."

"I get to pick the dessert place."

"No, we are going to, oh never mind. I'll show you."

I wrote Appetizer, Soup/Salad, Entre, Dessert on 4 separate pieces of paper and we each drew one out.

"Oh, I got entre, can we trade?"

"No, let's just go and see what happens."

We agreed on a mall where there were lots of eating establishments and started with Sasha who had picked Appetizers.

"I pick Starbucks. Does a Vanilla Steamer count as an appetizer?"

"If that's what you want, that's what we'll do."

4 Vanilla Steamers, no 3 Vanilla Steamers and one Carmel Apple hot something or other.

"Ooow, I don't like it." "Okay, I'll have the Carmel Apple hot something or other. You can have my Vanilla Steamer."

California Pizza Kitchen was picked for the Soup or Salad. No one liked their soups, no one liked their salads. There were no whiners and no one making a fuss, just looks of confusion about what to do since they were supposed to have soup or salad and that wasn't working out. I said, "How about a bowl of rice, you all like rice." Everyone agreed, but remember we were at California Pizza Kitchen-----no rice. $21 worth of buttered pasta later, we decided to go to the movie and have hot dogs and candy for the entre and dessert.

Movie had already started. I was in no mood to stand in the wind for 2 hours to wait for the next one. So, without complaint we all agreed to go to Cold Stone Creamery and have whatever they wanted--no restrictions.

I didn't bother to look at that bill, but I had a chcolate covered cone with nuts on it filled with chcolate ice cream with Ghirardelli dark chocolate carmel filled pieces broken up in it and small chocolate chips. No interest in bubble gum, cottom candy or sour green apple for me.

Next time, I'll let them come up with the bright ideas. Never let it be said that any of my grandchildren are not independent thinkers or afraid to say what they want. I forsee a generation of indepdendent, individuals, leading the pack and confident in who they are and what they want.

Now, be sure you understand, this was a fun, pleasant, learning experience for me. I wouldn't trade it for the world.