Where’s My Dinner?

Kids are so lucky.  They get a winter break.  I mean, they just had Christmas break.  Why do they need another one so soon?  When my kids were younger, I used to drop them off at their grandparents for this break.  My kids were lucky.  They had grandparents were youngish, healthy, and retired!  And, most importantly, they had grandparents who wanted to spend time with their grandchildren.  My father would call me up just to find out when the kids were on school break.  They always wanted their grandchildren to stay with them.  This was great for me because even though school was closed, work was not!  Because of my parents, I was able to save many of vacation and sick days, days that I was able to use in the summer to spend time with my kids.
 
As the kids grew older, going to their grandparents’ wasn’t as much fun anymore.  Now they were able to take the subway by themselves and they wanted to spend time with their friends instead.  Also, winter break falls during basketball season.  Instead of going to his grandparents’, my son preferred to play basketball with his friends.  We all knew that this was part of their transition into “adulthood”, and we all took it in stride.  Besides, I made sure that the kids still spent time with their grandparents during Thanksgiving and Christmas.
 
So, a few weeks ago my daughter was home for the winter break.  Every day, I got up, got ready for work, kissed my daughter goodbye (who by the way was just lying in bed chilling like she didn’t have a care in the world), and went to work.  I.  Was.  Jealous.  I want a mandated winter break!!!  I deserve it!!  I work hard all year.  I want a free week that doesn’t count against my vacation and/or sick time.  Granted, my daughter did have a science project to work on, but she didn’t look stressed about it at all.  In fact, when I came home, this girl was relaxing on the futon binge watching some cartoon.  Hey, I want to binge watch a tv show too!  In fact, there are quite a few shows I want to binge watch.  I can’t think of them right now, but they will come to me eventually.  
 
Since I knew that my daughter would be home, I made sure that I went grocery shopping and made food for her.  After all, I didn’t want the poor girl to starve.  All she had to do is literally put the food on a dish and heat said dish in the microwave.  She didn’t have to cook anything from scratch if she didn’t want to.  Although, she did make some sugar cookies on Monday.  I got to eat about four of them.  There were no more left by Wednesday.  
 
The last two nights, of her winter break, I came home and made myself a light dinner.  Being polite, I asked my daughter if she would like for me to make her some too.  Of course, both times the answer was yes.  In my mind, I’m thinking, “What!  You’ve been home all day, and YOU’RE waiting for ME to cook dinner?  What’s wrong with this picture?”  So I finally said to her, “Hey, you’ve been home all day.  Where’s my dinner?”  Can you believe she laughed at me?!?!?  That’s right.  She laughed!  Then, she reminded me that she was not a housewife.  Man, I hope and pray that I live long enough to see her if and when she has kids.  I hope they do to her everything that she does to me.  I look forward to listening to her complain about her kids, only to laugh and say, “OMG!  Really!  Wow, I wonder who she got that from?”
 
Future parents, take it from me, unless your kid really likes cooking or you tell you kids to make dinner (and they remember to do it), don’t expect dinner to be waiting for you when you come home from work.  You would probably have a better chance hitting the Mega Million.  In fact, you may as well start planning which numbers to play now.
 
So, now you know, and you can … Consider Yourself Warned!
 
If you have kids, have they ever surprised you with a home cooked dinner?  And I mean a dinner that was not served on your birthday, Mother’s Day, or Father’s Day?  Those don’t count.