Children are so inconvenient, at least in America.

I read an opinion piece about how a CNN story about little children in airplanes kicked off a storm of arguments in the comments area on the CNN website. That piece got me to another blog post, written by a woman who usually writes about her cats, but took a break to whine about how her already terrible flying experience was ruined by an ill-behaved child, and how she wanted to punch both the mother and the baby. I wasn't even done being horrified when the post ended and I was in comment-land, and all the comments lauded the post as 'funny' and completely agreed with the fact that parents of crying babies ought to be put in jail or something akin to that.

We can, of course, argue about whether it is possible to comfort a crying child hundred percent of the time. After all, babies do unpredictable things such as crying uncontrollably and pooping in their pants. We can also argue about whether a mother is 'bad', if she is paying more attention to her child, and is more concerned with keeping her child happy rather than some snarky stranger shooting her ugly looks. We can definitely talk about the sense of entitlement one must feel to be thinking that her cats are worth telling the whole world about yet declaring that little children ruin her flying experience in the cheapest section of the plane.

I do a lot of international flying, and even my children notice how much friendlier people in other countries are towards them. At foreign airports, the security personnel smile, even joke, with my children as we pass through security. Flight attendants in foreign airlines carry my bags if I am carrying a child and help the children with their carry-ons. En route, if my children are asleep during a meal service, the flight attendants offer, on their own, to pack away a meal for the sleeping child so that she has something to eat when she wakes up. When my toddler fidgets, I get fewer nasty looks from international passengers on a twelve hour trans-pacific flight, than I do from Americans in a two hour flight.

What I am reminded of, again, is how child-unfriendly America is. We have the fanciest of malls and department stores here, and yet you will not find a child-sized toilet or sink in them. Look through housekeeping magazines, filled with pages after pages of pictures of beautiful homes, but you will not see a child or even a place where a child could feel comfortable. Children and their possessions are completely isolated in the child's rooms and you can get lot of advice on how to keep the children and all their stuff perfectly ensconced in that one room, and how to make rest of the house your 'sanctuary'. More and more houses are designed with a 'split plan' - parents' bedrooms on the opposite side of the house as the children's bedrooms so that you can get as far away as you can from your children, while still being in the same house. Images of adults having a good time are completely devoid of children; the message, that for a family to have fun, parents and children must be separated is repeatedly broadcast in ads and other media images.

I hate to promote a commercial venture, but you just have to step into a foreign-designed IKEA store to have this starkly put in perspective - they have a childcare center, child-friendly bathrooms and meals, and they sell their sofas with pictures of children bouncing on them. I dare you to find even one American furniture seller's catalog with a child anywhere near the living room furniture. A dog, maybe, but no children. As if, children don't live in American living rooms. The side-affect of all this is that, subconsciously our feelings of what a home, a vacation or fun, should be gets altered and then our life becomes unfriendly to children too. At such times I like to remember something my friend passed on to me "remember you are raising a human being, not managing an inconvenience."

Wisdom of the day

A long hike and a long run had many thoughts running through my head and then this one jelled. After a certain threshold, any further square footage of the house no longer nets any more happiness. In fact, there is a place between square footage and prosperity where the extra space eats up what you need for happiness - a few free hours.

Feeding children

Now and then I read some book on feeding kids, or watch a movie such as Julie and Julia, and get completely inspired to introduce my family to new, interesting foods to only be reminded of the reason why I keep making the same five recipes again and again.

Food is a very cultural thing which, of course, is no new revelation, but I am always surprised by how much our food choices are shaped by the culture around us. Most children growing up in India, see images of Indian foods everywhere - in ads, in movies, pretty much anywhere food is displayed. Even the ads for Lays potato chips stress their spiciness. The children subliminally start associating an enjoyable meal with samosas and choley. They go to a wedding or a party, and see paneer and chicken masala as the main course, with gajar halwa for dessert, and that for them defines a feast. When I take my kids back to India, and they attend a feast, they refuse to eat anything there because it all looks alien. Of course, it is instantly assumed that one, I have raised completely Americanized kids who have not been taught anything about their heritage, and second that my children find the food too spicy. Both assumptions are wrong. The simple reason is that in my girls' minds a feast will forever be associated with a big roasted bird in the center of the table with mashed potatoes and gravy on the side, and not little pieces of vegetables and meat floating in a savory sauce. An excellent dessert is a pie not grated carrots cooked in milk. They watch their American cartoons, and ads and subconsciously absorb that a fun, tasty snack to drool over is not a Samosa but a big juice cheeseburger. Although, I cook Indian food almost daily, given the context of our lives even my kids sense that, this is not what most of their friends eat.

I am also reminded of reading the book "What to expect the first year", and how everything in it made complete sense when I initially read it. If you always feed your kids brown bread, they will love brown bread and find white bread tasteless. Of course! Two children, and ten years later I have acquired enough wisdom to know that just isn't true. Oh yes, I fed my kids brown bread for years and yet, the first time they tasted a PBJ sandwich made with white bread they exclaimed how delicious it was, and declared that is how they want their sandwich from now on.

This week, out of sheer frustration arising from packing the same Ham & Cheese sandwich for lunch everyday, I once again embarked on trying to introduce my girls to some different foods, that could also be lunch candidates. The first dish I made was Polenta squares. This had been rejected before but I decided to give it another try. They loved it, ate quite a few for snack and I happily packed it for lunch the next day with some marinara sauce and ranch. It was brought home uneaten. Sigh. Apparently it tasted good only when freshly made. I tried a few more things for the rest of the week and all were rejected, and as I stood there wondering aloud what to make for dinner my older one suggested "let's make lasagna. I know it is delicious". It is important to note that this child has never had lasagna before and I haven't made lasagna since she was born! I had lasagna noodles on hand, and I scraped together enough ingredients to make a spinach lasagna. It was a great success! Now this defies all explanation.