Chips

Ok....here is the picture. 5 year old son, sitting at the dining table, eating his lunch and taking part in family conversation. Well, sort of...if it wasn't for the fact that he was eating potato chips. Normally a routine thing, right? Well, not with my son. He has this way of eating chips unlike anyone I have ever seen. It actually is captivating and makes you wonder "have you ever seen someone eat chips that way before?".  The process is simple. Pick up a chip, take a bite, close your lips (preventing chips from falling out), chew and swallow right? Not so easy for a 5 year old boy. Of course it is easily mastered by my 4 year old daughter, but there is something about the process that makes it difficult for my son to master. 

His process goes as follows: pick up a big ol' potato chip, handle it a few times to determine the best spot to take a bite, move it to his mouth and take a very small bite of just the edge of the chip. Okay, here is the problem. When he does this, and every time he does this the same way, the entire chip cracks, crumbles, and falls to the table, chair, and surrounding area. Did I mention that I was a nut about messes and the failure to even follow the simplest instructions to close your lips around the chip to prevent it from breaking. Or, better yet, take a smaller chip and put the whole thing in your mouth. Break it in half if you must on your plate, I really don't care....whatever, just don't take the worlds smallest bite and cause your chips to endlessly crumble and fall to the floor. 

When our son eats chips we all sit around the table staring at him, wondering what step he is missing from the eating process, where did we fail as parents in the proper eating etiquette and training? Until we get this one figured out (which will be never-explanation coming up) we will continue search for other ideas and help for our son consume one of his favorite food items. 

So, now I bet your saying, don't worry he will eventually grow up and it is just a stage he is going through. Relax your being overly cautious parents and are caring too much about a simple little issue. Your right! But, the reason I can't get over the issue of the "Chips" is that I finally figured out why the whole thing is happening. In fact, I realized that it is useless to fight the fact that chip pieces will always be all over the floor, falling in an endless cascade each time my son eats his lunch. It is simply inevitable.....

All I had to do was go on a family visit to my in-laws and watch my Father-in-Law eat a few snacks in his overstuffed easy chair.....all, I could do was listen to that voice inside that said: It's inherited....it will never go away.....