So our toaster oven broke a few years ago and we never replaced it.  Not for any particular reason, we just never got around to it.  Neither did we own a regular pop-up toaster, as we had used the toaster oven for this purpose up until its untimely demise.  This put us in the amusing situation of going for years without eating a slice of toast at home – only plain bread.  For my wife and I, it was something we occasionally missed, usually at breakfast time, but nothing that caused us much concern.

Our kids, however, are young enough that they have never eaten a slice of toast,  bagel, or English muffin in their lives.  Fast forward to the present time and we now find ourselves on vacation in beautiful Sunriver, Oregon, renting a house that has, as many American households have, a toaster.  Needless to say, on our first trip to the grocery store, we purchase some of which has been denied to us for so long – English muffins.  For my kids, this magical treat was something they’d never had eaten before and they couldn’t get enough.  It looks like a slice of bread and yet it pops up hot and crunchy – what magic is this!  They were so excited that not only did they finish the entire pack of muffins, they didn’t even think to ask for dessert as  they were so enthralled with the English muffins.

Being the Dad that I am, I’m currently trying to think of what other delectable treats I can whip up for them now.  Maybe I can make some exciting pastries, the like of which they’ve never experienced before.  I can just hear the excitement in their voices as they cry out, “Oh, Father, do makes us another one of your magical ‘popped tarts’ again !!”

My kids had recently been addicted to sugary cereals.  I’m not sure why we started buying them in the first place.  I think it’s because the box showed pictures of endangered species on them and apparently the sugar has less calories if it is taken in conjunction with environmental awareness.  I decided that it was time to ween them off this and was mentally prepared for the push back from the kids (“push back” = “screaming and stomping”).

Just before Day Zero of the New World Order, I came up with a flash of brilliance that I thought was worth sharing:

As I was about to serve them the boring crispy rice cereal, I brought out our sugar bowl and excitedly sprinkled a teaspoon into each kid’s bowl in front of them.  Can I tell you how excited the kids were at the fact that I, Daddy, the Sugar Nazi, actually sprinkled sugar on something for them.  Never mind that their cereal had barely a fraction of the sugar they previously ingested, they were completed excited and never fussed.  It was new and exciting and they were content (and I was relieved).

In this situation, I couldn’t have created a better outcome no matter how much I tried to rationalize the health benefits to my kids.  Being an engineer, my default is to resort to logic but it was pure marketing and salesmanship that won the day today.  Just another little parenting skill for me to continue developing, for the good of us all.