Food left over.
Is there a time when parents stop eating their children’s leftovers? My dad would tell me, gruffly, “Be grateful you have food! You need to eat it.” And if we didn’t eat it, he would eat it, or my mom would put it in the fridge for later. When I had children, it made sense to eat what they left, rather than throw it out, though I’m more picky than my dad was. I have thrown out food occasionally, if there was something wrong with it, or if it was so bad that no one would eat it.
I realized early in marriage that I’m competing with restaurant food for taste; my husband was a restaurant manager for 9 years. I had to up my seasoning game, in order to keep things tasty. It helps that I’m a super-taster, really sensitive to changes in flavor, and that my husband would eat anything that didn’t get away fast enough. I remember two distinct occasions when my husband flat out refused to eat something after tasting it. Only twice is pretty good for 26 years.
Then my husband died suddenly. I was too busy taking care of finances, children, grief, and the house, to cook. For several years we ate convenience food, frozen casseroles, prepared meats, and canned soup. I long ago gave up making bread, but we even ate frozen pancakes for a time. Pancakes are possibly the simplest food to make, right after scrambled eggs!
It’s been six years. I’ve graduated two children from homeschool since he died. I have one left to educate; my son is 16 and largely in charge of his own learning. I teach at a homeschool co-op where my son takes classes. He’ll start college courses in the near future. I have a lot more time available, to think, to feel, to plan, to write. What I don’t have, is a perfectly working, energetic body. I can only do so much before my body calls a halt.
My daughter asked me to throw out her leftovers as she was leaving this afternoon. She’s 19, and while she didn’t take a lot of food, she didn’t feel she could finish it. Her stomach is attached to her emotions; she felt nervous. I looked at her potatoes and cinnamon toast. How important is it that I not throw them out?
