Public Service Announcement

Our 9 year old son is a picky eater.  I’m not talking about him not liking brussel sprouts or broccoli.  I mean his diet consists of 5 or 6 things.  Total.  It’s maddening.  I don’t know why he is so picky.  He use to eat anything I put in front of him.  Now every meal is a struggle.  I’ve grown so sick of the what-will-he-eat game that I taught him to make Easy Mac so on nights he doesn’t like whatever he is served, he can make something for himself and I feel less like pulling all my hair out.

Easy Mac, in case you didn’t know.

A couple nights ago, we went to dinner.  Dining out is always a crap-shoot.  He will eat pasta with butter and parmesan (don’t add sauce or seasoning or he won’t touch it), cheese pizza, or grilled cheese at restaurants.  That’s it.  No chicken strips or hamburgers like “normal” kids.  Oh, and they better not jack it up or he won’t eat it.  We tried a new Italian restaurant and he decided to get the cheese bread.  Simple, you think, right?  Just bread with cheese melted on it, right?  How could they screw that up?  Oh, in many ways, my friend.  For some reason, their cheese bread comes with marinara on the bread before it is topped with cheese.  I have no fucking clue why, but I guess that is why I am not a chef.  When the waiter brought the cheese bread out, you would think that they had served the boy arsenic covered worms with dog poo pudding.  Ugh, what a fuss over a little marinara.

Anyway…..  we got home and I told him to make himself some Easy Mac.  He prepared it and came in where we were watching TV.  After a couple minutes, I told him to go check the microwave and as he entered the kitchen, he started screaming “FIRE!!!  FIRE!!!”.  Hubby and I jumped from our seats and raced into the kitchen.  I saw the fire in the microwave and immediately my mind started forming an exit plan.  What exit we should use, how to get the pets out of the house, what items I should try to save while we waited for the fire truck…  Meanwhile…..hubby walked (rather calmly) to the sink, filled a glass with water, opened the microwave, and tossed the water on the fire.  Crisis averted.

Funny to me how our minds went different directions.  His went to solving the immediate problem, mine went to total crisis mode.  Not like I’ve ever been known to overreact before, mind you.

This is NOT MY picture…I was too panicked to take a picture. But, apparently this has happened to other people and they have their wits about them enough to take a picture. Original image: http://allfinancialmatters.com/2008/07/30/this-is-what-kraft-easy-mac-looks-like-when-you-forget-to-add-water/

I got a new microwave out of the deal and learned how to get the smoke smell out of the house (vinegar in bowls left out over night, light a couple candles, and Home Depot has an air freshener designed to remove the smoke smell).  And….we all learned that 9 year olds need to be monitored while using the microwave.

The next day, we went to Home Depot got more fire alarms and a few extinguishers.  Hubby had the fantastic idea that the kids should be trained to use the extinguishers, so we set a couple safe fires outside that they got to put out with one of the cheapie extinguishers.  They thought it was pretty cool, I thought it was a pretty good lesson.

Another good lesson?  Always remember to put water in the Easy Mac before nuking it.