Life is sweet

When I woke up this morning, I’d never heard of MeMe Roth. Now, at almost 3 in the afternoon, I feel drained and exhausted, having spent most of my day thinking about her.

The NY Times ran a story about her ongoing squabble with her children’s New York City public school, where other parents often send in cupcakes to celebrate their kids’ birthdays. Wrong, all wrong, feels Roth. Childhood obesity is on the rise, we’re a nation paying way too much for weight-related diseases, blah blah blah.

Yes, I know these are serious problems and we should all Do Something about it. But leave Alex out of the cupcake wars, please. Last week, for his birthday, I made chocolate cupcakes. I left some unfrosted… and he ate them. This was a big moment for us. I started out telling him it was a brownie, and I don’t think he quite fell for that, but by the time he was halfway through one, it was too late. He was enjoying it!

Since that night he’s eaten homemade coffeecake with chocolate chips and a huge hunk of chocolate mousse cake from the IKEA cafeteria, capping off a sumptuous feast of chicken fingers (he ignored the french fries). And this was a pleasure for us to watch.

Alex’s world is a small one. While Ned’s world gets bigger every year, Alex’s has stayed more or less the same size. He didn’t ask why there were no friends at his birthday. He’s enjoyed the MP3 player we gave him but he hasn’t demanded we put special songs of his own choosing on it.

One of the ways he can experience more variety is food. His palate is limited, and the list of things he doesn’t eat is much longer than the list of things he does. So anything he adds — anything – is a plus. If there’s a neurologic component to enjoying food and being willing to try new ones, I say bring on the cupcakes, the french fries, the cheeseburger. If my son isn’t going to have the kind of life other kids have, at least let him have some of the pleasures of childhood.