Angry Parents

Some, no most of you parents out there will relate to this story. Teri decides to make a roast chicken for dinner one night. She goes through all of the hoops. She makes stuffing to go with the chicken. Opps, I mean dressing, it was out of the bird. I only recently became aware of the difference. Stuffing is inside the bird, dressing is outside. So simple, but the taste difference is worlds apart. I'd have preferred to have stuffing over dressing, but after twenty-seven years of marriage, you learn things along the way. She asked me closer to dinner what I wanted with the chicken. I said "How about flavored rice," She wants to make two boxes, but I say to make one box. Later it will be a good thing we did. Oh about half an hour before dinner Teri calls Nastia, Elena and Jessica down to get ready to eat. They assemble in the dinning room and each proceeds to say they are not eating dinner tonight. The one that gets me and I don't remeber who. It could be all three, but one of them said they ate at four, it's now six-thirty. I'm the one who has been cooking lately because I now get home by 5:15-5:20. I have delt with this for six months telling them to not eat so late or to text me and tell me they are not having dinner to night. I once made dinner and was the only one to eat it. The girls were not hungry, they ate late and Teri couldn't eat it. I've made some wonderful food most of the time. This time it was different, it was Teri who'd cooked. She has been off the front lines for the last six months and that's OK, I like cooking. Teri is a good cook. She know what spices go together better then I and she has an intuition about cooking. I'm a good cook because I can follow a recipe and how difficult it is doesn't matter, I will learn it, eventually. Whenever I go off the grid, so to speak, it can get messy. I tried to make home made fried rice one night, no recipe. It was OK, but I think I ate 90% of it, because everyone else didn't want any more.

So here we are after Teri has cooked the whole afternoon. The girls have told us they are not hungry. Teri gets angry, can't blame her, been there, done that. She sends them off after a few blistering comments concerning her having cooked and she'd told them and they could have had the decency to let her know they were not eating. And to top it off the chicken gets over cooked. I carve the chicken the best I can, but my not too sharp knife shreads the dry meat.Teri and I fill our plates and go into the living room. Out of guilt or whatever, Nastia joins us, eating a small plate of food. Moral of the story... I really don't know. When they're young, you cook, they mostly eat it. When they get older, get jobs and are not home, you miss them. When they're in their twenties and are home and don't eat should we still consider ourself lucky they are still here? Well the day they move out I know I'll have a definate answer for you. I have it now, because I dread them leaving. I'll miss them too much. I know they have to eventually, but I don't want them to. /