Nutty Parenting Behavior

I feel uneasy if we don't have plastic containers up the wazoo.

Years ago, before I had kids, I read a mocking report of the suburbs. The author was particularly amused by suburbanites bringing food over to a new neighbor, then stopping by a few days later to ask for the plastic containers back. I laughed at the well-to-do getting silently peeved if their inexpensive plastic tubs and lids were not available.

Be careful of what you laugh at for eventually such will be you. It's now me, and I freely admit it.

The cause of my nuttiness in this regard is mainly due to having children. Food is prepared and a parent never knows if this is one of the many meals where a child takes a single bite and declares hunger vanquished. Break out the plastic, again and again.

The creative cook opens up all the containers and somehow keeps recycling the food into ever stranger combinations, or at least transferring it to new containers, giving the illusion of new cooking.

A good feeling is having the refrigerator empty of plastic containers and the cupboard full -- a state of total preparedness for possible food delivery, eggplant, bento, or whatever.

I've fought this madness for years, but the only hope of escape is to keep moving forward, being proud of what I've become. And if you don't return my plastic, watch out.