Hey Dads! Do you like your food spicy or mild? My friend’s dad is from Trinidad and he can pound down spicy food like nobody’s business! How about your kids, can they handle the heat? This weekend we accidentally learned that our 2-year-old, Juniper, probably prefers less spicy food.
We were out for brunch with another family and were waiting for our meal order to arrive. In situations like this, the youngest member of our family, Juniper, is sometimes passed around between her older siblings and her older parents (but not that old). Usually, the most responsible Juniper-watchers are, in order of expertise in attentiveness: Mom, older sisters, older brothers, younger sisters, younger brothers…Dad. It was still early in the restaurant visit and Juniper was sitting with a family member who will remain unidentified.
This unidentified family member is very responsible and carries a small first-aid kit in her purse should one of her offspring be injured along the way. It’s sort of a healthy-natural-organic-crunchy-hippie type of first aid kit. It contains some rather standard items like band-aids and some less standard items like a small jar of powdered Cayenne Pepper. If you’re like me you may have no idea why Cayenne Pepper would be in a first aid kit. If you’re smart, you’ll already know that Cayenne Pepper helps to stop bleeding. It does other things as well if your two-year-old happens to get into your purse and get into the first-aid kit and get the lid off the pepper jar in a restaurant and dump the powder all over herself.
Like any self-respecting two-year-old, Juniper began to brush the powder off herself. It began to float around in the air causing some sneezing and sniffles from the closest family members. Then Juniper wiped her eyes with her hands which may or may not have had pepper powder on them. Judging by her reaction, they probably had pepper powder on them. She began crying and rubbing her eyes more and we gave her a soother and judging by her next reaction it seemed to have pepper on it too so you can see how this jolly restaurant visit is going. Being the responsible type, I took Juniper to the bathroom when an unidentified family member asked me to. I helped wash off Juniper’s hands and face and soother and clothing. She recovered pretty quickly once we got her cleaned up and the meal continued without further incident. I refrained from asking why Cayenne Pepper was in a first-aid kit until much later in the day when all identified and unidentified family members were in a much healthier emotional state.
Now that we’ve had this experience with the pepper I’m not sure if I should really hope it gets used in a future emergency or if I should really hope it doesn’t get used in a future emergency. In my humble opinion, it’s created enough emergencies as it is. Well, dad, everyone in the family is recovered, healthy, and not blaming anyone about anything. Maybe it’s a good day to take your family out for a meal. Time flies. Make every moment count! And maybe leave the Cayenne Pepper at home.
Jason Weening rarely visits restaurants with his 10 kids and one spicy wife. Read more stories in his book, “Yes, Dear…I’m Watching Them,” on Amazon.