Kitchen

Throughout the kids' lives I've periodically said 'You'll never get me lucky charms!'. They saw an episode of the Simpsons where Lucky Charms are being had for breakfast which, aside from providing them with some actual fucking context and not just thinking I was a faux racist twat, kicked off a desire in them to try these evil, sweet, E-numbered thermo-nuclear-breakfast-mood-enhancers.

Oddly, Tesco down the foot of the Walk have Lucky Charms for sale. They obviously have red stickers deftly placed to hide the ludicrously mendacious nutritional claims which are allowed in Yanklandia and they have a big white sticker down the side making abundantly clear the plethora of E numbers and their detrimental effect on children's attention and behaviour.

Unfortunately, in the ingredients, we found that they have beef gelatine in them too. Which, is a slight problem for vegetarians. We're all veggie now, Rose having converted a few months ago. There was a dilemma.

So, I said; "How about just this once, we get them? It's no big deal, it doesn't mean you have to stop being veggie and I don't have a problem with you doing it. It's cool".

So, it was agreed.

I think it's important to let kids live, let them come to their own conclusions. Guide them but don't control them in every way. I know what I'm saying ain't groundbreaking but I think we can sometimes get wrapped up in stoopid rules and restrictions when really we only get this one childhood, we only get this one life, these things are important; to know when to bend, to weigh a situation up and to demonstrate to your kids when and what things matter.

So, on the proviso that the wee feckers ate their porridge first, they were allowed to have a bowl of Lucky Charms for breakfast dessert.

I've never seen porridge eaten that fast.