Yes, I’ve been off the blog for awhile. More on that later, but in the meantime, I’m back, full of lots of thoughts of various quality and degrees of helpfulness.
Today, I’d like to share how my kids are helping to nudge me out of a comfort zone. (Kids are good for that if you haven’t noticed.)
I love my three boys and their sense of adventure. And yesterday, for some reason, the twins got it in their heads that they wanted to try lobster. Scott and I decided it would be a good idea to let them try it so for dinner we headed to, where else, Red Lobster.
Because I tend to think about the budget before I think about the fun, I searched the menu and determined that the most inexpensive way to get lobster for my 7-year-old twins (hey, I never had lobster when I was 7!) was the petite lobster tail on the kids’ menu, $8.99. Ding!
But wait – Kendall and Addison wanted to pick a lobster from the tank. They wanted aWHOLE lobster ($28.99 – zoiks!) brought to the table intact and steaming.
I started to say no then did some quick math. As the waitress was explaining that the smallest full lobster is a pound and a half (that’s including the shell) I asked the size of the kids’ lobster tail. Five ounces. So two kids’ tails totals 10 ounces and a pound and a half would be 24 ounces minus the weight of the shell – I was doing the math out loud at the table to myself and Scott figuring out what would be the better deal.
Then I looked at Kendall, who had his head cocked at me sideways like a confused little puppy dog and it hit me: Regardless of what I ordered or what kind of deal I got, I WAS RUINING THEIR LOBSTER WITH MATH, OVERTHINKING AND JUST GENERALLY BEING A CHEAPSKATE.
*sigh* I am a work in progress, my friends.
We ordered a full lobster dinner for the twins and the kind waitress took Kendall and Addison to the tank to pick out their dinner. Cole supervised. We had a great time. We spent a lot on dinner, of course (Cole, Scott and I got shrimp – yum!) and Addison realized he LOVES lobster and Kendall realized he loves it not so much, but he loves, loves, loves to try new things.
And I got a good reminder that as long as you’re paying cash and you don’t do it very often, it’s okay to just shut up, stop doing the math, and order the stinkin’ lobster.
Kendall and Addison have a great story to tell their friends at school on Monday and I got a good lesson that it’s not always worth stressing out yourself or your kids over a $10 difference between choice A and choice B. But clearly my angst paid off just a little bit – the sweet waitress let me use TWO $4 off coupons.
Picking the lobster from the tank
Of course they wanted to pet it first…
Here’s their dinner bidding us farewell, which made me very sad.
We got some help getting the meat out of the lobster.
Kendall, enjoying his dinner
Cole preferred playing with the claws, but he did try a bite
And Addison had the most fun of all playing with all the parts.
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