As Thanksgiving Day approaches, I am inevitably reminded of past holiday meals. For many years I had five small children "helping" me in the kitchen. It's easier now but I'd have to say all that chaos was more fun.
Surviving the holidays with children is a completely different affair than without a houseful of them. Mothers of little ones must devise a much more complicated battle plan, that requires careful and complicated organization to come through it all in one piece.
To all you moms of small children who are entering the fray of the holiday season, I salute you. Your valor and drive is enormous and should be celebrated.
Having three little girls fighting over who gets to stir the pie filling can be challenging. "Divide and conquer" is a time-honored military strategy, which can be implemented with success in this Thanksgiving scenario as well.
One girl gets to pour the cream into the bowl. Another tackles the bowl with the egg beater. The third sister can stir the pumpkin, egg and cream goo into the pie shell.
The two boys wisely preferred to back quietly out of the kitchen and go play. They were often successful with this ploy, but sooner or later they would also be pressed into service, carting and fetching dishes and silverware.
After food preparations are done, it's not just time for mom to change her clothes. Each child needs to be inspected and dressed. It can take the skills of a diplomat to get a kid into an outfit that isn't a colorful, visual explosion.
If you're having a big gathering, setting a separate table for the little ones can make things less crowded at the big table, and allows for a more relaxed standard of behavior at the kiddy table.
Having a room where tiny tots who are over-excited and over-tired can be taken and nursed in private, or put down for a nap, has saved many a holiday dinner from disaster.
If you have a play room for the children to dash off to before and after dinner, they will have more fun and the adults will be better able to kick back and carry on conversation at a volume somewhat lower than a shriek.
The vigilant mom has to have eyes in the back of her head, and ears that can hear into every room in the house. Moms are constantly counting. Keeping track of the kids at all times is not optional.
How many of the little darlings are in this room? The ones that aren't in here raising the roof -- just where are they, and what pray tell are they into?
Peeking into this room, walking down the hall and listening at that door ... does all seem to be well? So far, so good.
Or maybe not. Kids fighting over toys? Refusing to eat? Stealing each others' food or throwing it around? Are there tears? Special talents required here.
And so the evening goes. The lucky and well-prepared mother can feel relieved and successful if the occasion passes without breakdowns, or breakage.
When it's time for the guests with children to round up their brood and get them bundled up for the cold night air, the uninitiated may be surprised at just how involved this process can be.
Each child must be buttoned up, all child paraphernalia (toys, bottles and security blankets) must be regrouped and accounted for before the treck out to the car, and the subsequent seat-belting, car-seating and booster-seating is performed.
And for the mom who played hostess, whose children helped to create Thanksgiving dinner and hopefully the pleasant atmosphere, is still not free to collapse when the door is shut.
Then it's time to clean up the kids, clean up the kitchen -- hopefully with help from other members of the household -- before she feels free to let herself relax.
Not an evening for the faint of heart. But you know, I think I'd still rather do it with a houseful of little kids.
Visit Jody's website at http://www.ncubator.ca