Island observations

It's strange. When I go to my parents' place with the kids all of a sudden all kind of rule bendings are allowed. I surprise myself with buying premade meatballs and thin Swedish white bread (tunnbröd). The thin bread is some kind of natural reaction of being close to Sweden, when I was a kid I always got thin bread when we went to Sweden. Is made out of white wheat flour, and I consider it quite empty on nutrients, but hey, we are on vacation; I can allow this within the 80-20 approach... And not to talk of the ice cream session the kids had with their grandparent yesterday!!! They were literally jumping up to the roof with that treat (the kids, not the grandparents). What is so lovely with those special moments nowadays is that they are truly special moments, the kids understand that and that is what makes them so happy. When we used to have bought icecream (make our own nowadays, based on avocado and bananas) every week, the reaction was the reversed; if we didn't have it they would be let down, nagging at the icecream freezer at ther supermarket. Nowadays they walk by both the icecream and the candies without even noticing. The trick is to let them have the treats at special moments so that next time we are at the supermarket we are not faced with the whole "throw-myself-on-the-floor-and-screem-ICECREAM"- You see we  nowadays have not only one but two kids with a strong will - and that is what makes life just a little bit more exciting!

What I also found intriguing was the discussion I had with Kidone regarding our boat trip out to the island. She started talking about the candy on the boat. I immediatelly associated it with the tax free shop's 1 kg candy bags (the ones I myself used to get when I traveled over to Sweden as a kid...) and I was thinking "my oh my, I am not up for this battle". Then I promised her we would check out the treats on the way home and see if we could get something for new year. Well guess what? My daughter is still completely unaware of the big bags of candies hidden in the tax free shop. She had been talking about the small candies in the cabin, and was all so excited of getting to bring ONE of those home with her. For her the boat trip is still all about one Marianne candy and the playground ball sea - not at all associating the cruise to the "food ´& beverage experience" on the cruises. How sound. I hope it will remain that way for YEARS to come.  Best of all is that as long as we, the parents, are in control, we really can keep it that way. Feels comforting somehow.