By John Selick IV
There is a lot of truth to the old adage “it takes a village to raise a child.”
My wife and I welcomed a daughter to our already full house of children, a fourth child to a blended family of preteen siblings. We may have been running out of room in our home, but we had plenty of room in our hearts to welcome this little girl into our lives. She is surrounded by a loving family of parents, sisters and a brother, and her grandparents. The grandparents are important members of this village.
You’ve probably heard how hard the chef career is: they’re rarely home, they work long weekends, they miss holidays. It’s all true. It’s a tough career where I’ve had to make family sacrifices. To make it more complicated, my wife is in this business, too.
We couldn’t be successful in our careers if it wasn’t for our parents, who are able to help with the children. The kids are lucky to have grandma and grandpa be there for them while we are at work. They genuinely care about how the kids are doing in school and what they want to eat. The grandparents spoil them with foods they love, but of course we have some preferences we want for them, as well.
A Gentle Clash
I’m into fresh ingredients when I cook at work and at home. I also prefer organic for some ingredients. She won’t say it, but I could see the look in my mother-in-law’s eyes when I loaded the fridge with homemade baby food – she thought I was nuts. She raised her own children with store-bought baby food and they turned out just fine. Who does this guy think he is with his sweet potato-spinach-apple concoction?
Grandma happily obliged and used the homemade food, although I’m convinced she was adding a little salt and having a bit of the baby food for herself because it was so good. She’ll never admit to it and I can never prove it, I just have this feeling…
My effort to make baby food wasn’t a mistrust in her judgement or ability to raise children, it was my desire to give my daughter what I thought was best. There were times I didn’t have time to make her food and we had to rely on jars of baby food from the store. The grandparents started bringing treats for our children, and I could see they respected our feelings about food by bringing whole grain snacks, organic yogurts and hormone-free milk.
Paying a premium for these foods might seem like a waste of money to grandparents, but having our kids eat foods similar or better to what we eat is important to us. I also have a lot of trust in their decisions, even if their ideas are different from ours. They were the first people we called when we were new parents because we had no idea what we were doing.
Families that have grandparents involved in the children’s lives create a strong, supportive village. Having open communication and respect for each other’s child-raising abilities and how to feed the kids will make the grandchild experience more enjoyable for everyone.
John Selick IV is the senior culinary manager at Sodexo Healthcare Services for University Hospitals in Cleveland.
