  Part of the privilege of being a parent is that you get to paint the picture of normal for your child's brain. During their formative years (birth to six), children's experiences of everything from married couples to exercise to daily diet comprise what feels normal for the rest of their lives. This power [responsibility] allows you to screw with the realities of the world just a bit. For example, we tell Aidan McDonalds is yucky. Every time he sees an ad or sign her reminds us and we love it. Considering that McDonalds advertises before and after his favorite show, Sesame Street, I think this counter-attack has been especially effective. Once he got into an argument with his cousin about it because she said it was yummy and he said it was yucky. The exchange went on for a while until Rian said well, broccoli is yucky and Aidan was obliged to say no, it's yummy. Well, today we got to take this power to a new level and make good on Aidan's stand for broccoli. It all started when this cool guy was on Oprah last week and he said broccoli is one of the best foods for the body there is, but a lot of people don't like it. He helpfully pointed out that the broccoli seed's sprouts are every bit as healthy so if you like sprouts you can get the goods that way. John hates broccoli so I added the sprouts to his grocery list next time he went to Whole Foods. Tonight Aidan needed a quick, small dinner when we got home from cell phone shopping, and John wanted to make him a PB&J (unsweetened preserves and crushed nuts on whole wheat bread sweetened with white grape juice instead of the typical HFCS, fyi).
Aidan eats way too many of these and I try to diversify his diet as much as possible since we don't take vitamins as a family. So I told John to throw in some broccoli sprouts. Aidan's new big thing is to sit on the counter and "help" dad cook. They have this great bonding time and today we even sat Ellie on the counter too long enough to snap the cutest picture ever.
I say this so you understand that we weren't pulling one over on Aidan, he helped put the sprouts on. Then he said, "Dad, I think this is my first peanut and jelly butter and broccoli sandwich. " We almost fell over laughing. Then he proceeded to eat it up with the usual abandon, just like it was... wait for it... normal .
What do we hope to gain with all this tomfoolery? Aidan gets excited over a special rare treat of a lemon wedge like most kids do over refined sugar-deserts. Today at Croissant Brioche, he giggled with anticipation over the coming taste of the froth off dad's capucino. Diet is a learned response, and parents are the teachers. When our kids grow up, they'll surely be aware of how different our values and teachings were, but these values we're instilling will always feel most comfortable. Madly in love parents right alongside eating well despite their unhealthy surrounding culture will feel normal. 
