How to Peel a Banana

One thing that has come up in recent comments is that everybody has different dietary preferences and different ways of eating the same foods. Bow and I would never dream of imposing our choices on anybody else, and our general policy is to live and let live. We each have our own way of enjoying the feast before us.

So, when you read a title like "how to peel a banana", I'm not really suggesting that anybody else should do it the way Bow does. What I mean is more like "how we peel a banana" -- or in this case, how Bow does it. I don't do it this way at all.

The temptation to be prescriptive, though, is always there and I have to watch myself to keep from sounding bossy. The first time I saw Bow try to peel a banana, I said: "Bow, no! We don't do it that way! Don't put the peel in your mouth!" At the time I was the mother of two very small children. Bow was the youngest of the two, and he was still in diapers and baby clothes and sitting in a high chair. Up till then, I had always peeled his bananas for him.

But then somebody said to me: "That's how chimpanzees peel bananas."

"Oh." I felt very foolish. After that, I stopped trying to tell Bow how to peel a banana.

We tend to try to socialize our kids to want to do things just the way we do. But there are times when we have to let go. There are times when we must concede that though this is not how we do it, our children have their own way, which is just as good, if not better!

So, in the spirit of live and let live, here is how Bow eats a banana:

He opens it in the middle, starts eating close to the stem and finishes at the other end. It's different from the way I do it, but I'm told it's not at all unusual. Is there a reason for this method? If there is, I don't know it.

But it just goes to show that there is more than one right way to do something.

Does Bow always eat his bananas this way? Usually, but not always. Sometimes I make fried bananas for both my kids. Bow loves them. He calls them "hot bananas" and eats them with a spoon. Bow is very flexible. He doesn't insist that it has to be his way all the time!