The Pizzeria Adventure.

Something we don't normally do as a family in my house is go out for dinner, i know it's quite a big thing in countries like America and such like but over here in Sweden, it's not all that common. I think the Swedish people in general just like to gather at home at the dinner table and eat dinner together there, but on Friday we decided that for a special treat for the kids that we would take a little stroll up to our local pizzeria here in Järpås and treat them to a pizza.

Unfortunately unknown to us until we had got up there, our son Alexander had decided that he would eat not one but SIX pancakes at school for lunch which left himself rather stuffed. We decided however that this was not going to stop our little family evening out and that we would still treat everyone to a nice evening.

Now after being brought up by parents who always said "If you don't finish your dinner, then there will be no treat after it" i have of course taking up this principle myself, this is probably one of the many things myself and Marie disagree on when it comes to parenting, i remember the first time i ever came out of it in front of our teenage daughter (i think she was around 11 at the time) and her response which made me laugh was "There is always room for candy and goodies after dinner". I can still remember to this day my response being "That is the most stupidest thing i have heard in my life, if you are to full to finish eating your dinner, then are you to full to eat crap afterwards".

On the other hand i was willing to make a slight exception for Alexander, bearing in mind that he had been allowed by the school to eat six pancakes for dinner, i was really shocked by this but apparently at school here in Sweden the children go up and pick up their food themselves. Something we never got to do when i was at school many moons ago, but perhaps this has changed? I don't know but it's something that happens over here at least. But although i was ready to make the exception for Alexander, i did not have the same feeling towards the other two.

Once there we made our order, myself and Marie got our normal dish, which is the kebab plate, which consists of chips, salad and alot of kebab meat and the twins got a small children's pizza which was split in half for them to share, leaving them with about 6 slices each, Mikaela our oldest opted for some Kebab wrap with alot of salad and stuff in it. The minute the food i arrived and i seen Mikaela's choice i knew for a fact that she would not finish it i mean the thing was gigantic, i don't know anyone in the world that would be able to finish that dish so in the back of my head i was thinking well aslong as she finishes half of it i will make the exception for her.

In the end Alexander managed to eat 4 out of the 6 slices and Maximus 5 out of the 6 so they ate pretty well. Mikaela managed to eat about half but had left quite a bit on her plate, so i had said that we should not give them anything good after it as they hadn't eaten as much as i would have liked, plus every child had turned around and said the magic words "I'm to full to finish this"
Now at the pizzeria the guys their normally give the children a lollypop after the meal and the boys of course knew this, so straight after saying that they were full they were asking about their lollypop's, myself of course being the Hitler/enforcer of the family turned to them and said that there would be nothing because they had not finished what they had chosen for dinner.

But just as we were leaving the man behind the counter like always handed the boys their lollypops, i could not believe the look on Max's face, it was the look of "Ha, i got something anyways. You don't decide anything here!". Normally i would let this type of thing go, but Max is in a phase right now where his attitude and cheek towards the family is at a all time high and i decided that i would like to bring him down a peg or two. Perhaps this was childish of me? i have no idea really, but i think as a parent it is my duty to instil certain things into my children so with the look of "Oh really" i turned quickly around and said "You may have the lollypop Maximus, but you are not allowed to open it or eat it". Lets just say the minute those words left my mouth the smirk left his face very quickly.

In the end and after about 3 hours after we had eaten i eventually did give in and allow them to eat their lollypops, i thought it was only fair as although they didn't actually finish the plate they both did really well, especially Alexander after eating all those pancakes at school and still managed to eat 4 out of the 6 slices of pizza he was given, do i feel bad for given in eventually? well yes i do, as i said before i think it is our duty as parents to teach our children good traits so i really shouldn't have but i did, and at least i waited a good few hours after the fact before i decided to give in and allow them to eat there lollypops.

Do you think i did wrong? do you think i was immature in the way i handled how Max was smirking and the look of you don't decide anything?
I would really appreciate some feedback on this, so feel free to drop me a message, or perhaps share a story about something similar.

But for now i think i shall bid you all farewell.