Foods of Childhood

When is the last time you ate a Goldfish cracker? If you answered "this morning," you're probably the parent of a young child. If your answer can be measured in years, you're probably not.

Certain foods are in the province of childhood. Before Ben was born, I'd buy a box or two of crackers a year, almost always to go with interesting cheese. Now we buy a box or two a week (usually Tasty Little Crackers--the ranch ones if we're being adventurous). How often do adults eat dry Cheerios, little boxes of raisins, or animal crackers? But once you have a toddler, you need foods that are portable and moderately healthy. Ben's current favorite snack is a mixture of Craisins, raisins, Cheerios, and Goldfish, which is guaranteed to keep him quiet while we're out, as long as he doesn't accidently spill it on the floor. I held out against Goldfish for a while, but I relented a few weeks ago when they were on sale and I discovered they no longer have trans fats.

At the grocery store today, we bought a mixture of "kid food" and "adult food": peanut butter and jelly, and hummus, and Goldfish. We pull Ben towards adulthood by offering a range of more complex foods and thus risking his scrunched-up icky face. But sometimes, when the three of us sit around eating crackers out of the box, I marvel how having children tugs you back towards your own childhood. I appreciate having the chance to go back and revisit the foods I left behind.