Today me and the little guy met my wife for lunch.  There was a guy there who was alone, and it seemed like maybe he was having a rough go at things lately.  He sat alone and looked deeply pensive, but when he was up walking around the restaurant, he looked confident and in control.  But it was the times he didn’t know he was being seen that I sensed a sadness or challenge might be behind that confidence – until he saw the little guy.

The little guy and this man played and smiled and laughed from across the restaurant, and then at the end of the meal the man came over to say hi and brought a few gingerbread cookies from the coffee table.

My wife and I looked at each other in silent and polite panic (the Swedish way!) as we do not give cookies to the little guy – we don’t give any sugar at all, and here we have two cookies staring at us in the face.  What do we do?  Do we move them away and act like they were never brought over?  Do we let the little guy have them?

Yes, we let the little guy eat those 2 cookies.  Both my wife and I hated it, but the fact is, this man needed it.  He needed to contribute today to the life of this new friend he made.  He needed to do something for him, and we, the parents, needed to back off and let it happen.  I hope that this man walked off built up a bit by the whole thing, with his burdens lighter.  As for the little guy, he loved it, there’s no question he would be happy to see this man again 😉