babies, beets, and kidney beans

I’m all about parents providing good and healthy food for their children, but sometimes people can go a little overboard. I was on the train a few Saturdays ago and was standing in the corner. An UWS mom entered the train with her 4 year old son in a stroller. They began to have a conversation. Normally, I appreciate when parents actually converse with their kids instead of ignoring them during a long and boring train ride. But for some random reason, this mother continued to get louder and louder. She wasn’t upset; it was more of a “Look at me. I am talking to my kid. Aren’t I a good mother?” type of a deal. People around her started to roll their eyes.

Moments later she pulled out something from her insulated lunch bag to feed to her son. “Do you want some beets?” she asked sweetly. I’m sorry, did you just say beets? Yes. Yes, she did. Her son nodded his head and she proceeded to place one in his mouth. He appeared to be chewing. “Wow,” I thought to myself, “good kid.” He hadn’t quite finished chewing that one but then she stuck another one in his mouth. A few seconds later another one. It wasn’t until now that I realized that he really hadn’t been swallowing the beets but that they were stuck in the sides of his cheek. The other passengers and I exchanged glances at the poor beet boy.

Apparently she didn’t notice because a few minutes later she pulled something else out. “Do you want some kidney beans?” KIDNEY BEANS!? ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? Come on lady! He’s four! I just barely learned to like those things! The woman next to her let out a small chuckle and looked to me for validation. I shrugged my shoulders and smiled. The mother pulled out a plastic spoon and scooped up a too-large-to-fit-into-anyone’s-mouth spoonful of kidney beans and proceeded to shove it into her son’s mouth. I say shove, because he still had three large beets in his mouth. At this point, his cheeks were bulging. Was she really not seeing this? I guess he managed to get a few morsels down because she shoveled yet another spoonful of kidney beans into his mouth. Soon her train stop came and she and her son and his mouthful of healthy, left the train car. At that point, everyone and I mean everyone, started to laugh and the rest of the train ride home was spent commenting on this poor child’s predicament. You gotta love the way that New Yorkers pull together sometimes.