This morning my son decided to make his own scrambled eggs for breakfast. He's been cooking for himself every once in a while lately, and I'm glad that he's willing to test his own independence about this sometimes, even though most mornings I have to coax him through every bite of his bowl of cereal.
I don't remember making my own breakfast as a child. I must have at least poured myself a bowl of cereal, or toasted my own waffles, but my mother would never have let us go make an egg over a hot stove. Breakfast in my house was a mass-production affair, with its contents determined by the day of the week. Monday was cereal. Tuesday, eggs. Wednesday, frozen waffles. Thursday, cereal again. Friday, eggs again. On Saturday we always ate pancakes. And on Sunday, we'd start the eggs cycle again, but with pastries instead of toast.
My father was the pastry-getter on Sunday mornings before breakfast. He always brought me my favorite: for a long time, it was a cheese danish (out of which I ate the cheese, leaving the pastry part behind), and then I transitioned to a raisin scone (out of which I would pick the raisins, eating them, leaving the scone part behind).
While I like giving my own kids the independence and freedom of choice about their own breakfasts (much as it tortures me some mornings to ask for the fifth time what they want to eat, like I'm a short-order cook), there's something about the structure of this, about the tradition, that's appealing.
What's for breakfast in your house?
wow, I can't imagine being so organized and orderly so as to have the same breakfast every day of the week! Our house is more chaotic than that....Nugget will sometimes get up before us and climb into the fridge using a step stool to pull out a yogurt. So, some days he will have fed himself. Other days we are good parents and actually help him in his breakfast prep. He's only 4! My daughter usually has bits of whatever Daddy is eating, which ranges from yogurt to leftover meat from dinner to bacon and eggs to a smoothie. I'm usually just getting back from my run when they have finished their breakfasts, so I don't really partake in the process.
ReplyDeleteUsually yogurt. On weekends, we turn the Friday night challah into French toast. Other than that, it's yogurt in the morning or trail mix. No cooking.
ReplyDeleteI love that he wants to cook and that you let him.
ReplyDeleteI had a bowl of rice krispies and then a slice of toast and marmalade every morning of my childhood. I still default to cereal, and the kids have dry cereal (guess who?) and waffle/toast respectively. I really need to introduce fruit at breakfast; my marmalade always pretended to fulfill that role.
I can't remember breakfasts when I was growing up, likely cereal. But I vividly remember always making my own lunch in elementary school. Two slices of white bread, a very light smear of mayonnaise, and one, very thin, almost transparent slice of ham...
ReplyDeleteWith my 2 year old I give her two choices for breakfast. Lately, she always chooses honey toast, and she sits on the counter beside me as I make it and we chat, make coffee... I love mornings...
Cereal, usually: Owen prefers it to anything else, and we rarely have time to cook in the mornings.
ReplyDeleteThe irony is that I had cereal every weekday when I was a child and loathed it. I have JUST discovered a love for cereal, now, in my adult years.
I try to make myself Steel-cut oatmeal with fruit every morning as I find it gives me the most energy for the day. The kids usually have whole wheat toast with milk and fruit or waffles during the week. On the weekend we make fruit pancakes and special artisan bacon from the Farmer's Market or sometimes French Toast Challah like Mel.
ReplyDeleteI love breakfast, cannot leave the house without it & cannot relate to people who claim they can't eat first thing in the morning. ; ) When I was a kid, we mostly had cereal, sometimes a half-grapefruit with sugar sprinkled on it. My grandfather made his own porridge for breakfast every morning & he lived to be 96 ; ) (he also smoked & drank a shot of whiskey every day ;) ) -- my mother & I decided there must be something to it, so we both started making oatmeal for breakfast every morning in the microwave -- that was over 30 years ago & we still do it. I like mine with brown sugar & cinnamon on top, and a big glass of orange juice on the side. I do like bacon & eggs or an omelette occasionally on weekends. :)
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