As a single, divorced Mom, I didn’t always have a surplus of extra cash. And life in the big City was expensive. So I had to come up with creative ways to address the “Why Can’t We Do This” or the “Why Can’t We Buy That” conversation. One great example of this parental challenge was with Mister Softee, our beloved neighborhood ice cream truck. In the warmer months, Mister Softee would park every single day outside of my son Matty’s elementary school and so of course The Boy fancied a chocolate shake every single day. At $5 a pop, I just couldn’t swing $25 a week in slurpables.
So I told him I had an even better snack at home– a chunky monkey milkshake. He was curious and excited! I took a frozen peeled banana and chucked that into a blender with a huge scoop of Breyer’s chocolate ice cream, a sizable pour of milk and more chocolate syrup than was needed. I gave that a Vitamix whirl and voila! The chunky monkey milkshake was born. Is it too corny to say he went absolutely bananas for it? Because he did. And so became the ritual– why have Mister Softee when Mom makes chunky monkeys at home?
Another great trick I pulled was the Hershey Park Hustle. I was taking Matty to Hershey Pennsylvania to visit the theme park for the weekend, but we weren’t staying at the fancy hotel on site. Instead I booked a modest property off campus. So to make him feel extra special, I told him that we were staying the most terrific place in all of Hershey. When we got there, I had him stand outside our hotel room door for a quick minute while I dragged in my heavy handbag that was secretly loaded with sweets.
I tucked chocolate bars under his pillow, threw Hershey’s Kisses into the bathtub, crowded a pile of Hershey’s miniatures around the sink, filled the water glasses with treats, and scattered various chocolate bars in every drawer in the entire room. When he walked in there was really nothing to see– most of the candy was carefully hidden. So I told him that we should probably investigate why they considered this room to be so special since it looked completely ordinary.
Sure enough one by one he found each bar, treat and Kiss, and was more and more excited as his stash of chocolate grew! It was the sweetest prank— and I only came clean about my antics a few years ago. (I think he forgives me.)
As parents we are always thinking of the best ways to enhance our children’s lives, keep them happy, safe, fed, and curious about the world. In my case, I was trying to make the ordinary seem extraordinary and I guess it worked because Matty turned out pretty sweet— maybe it’s because of all the chocolate?!
jenslittleblackbook.com 