Originally broadcast on CHED radio - Date unknown

I used to think I wanted all my children when I was in my 20s. "Let's have them and get it over with," was my attitude. Now here I am over 40 and I still have a two-year-old around the house and I'd like to believe there will be more. I find now that the older I get the more I appreciate the little ones. There is one disadvantage and that is the older you become the busier you become and hints you have fewer hours with the kids. Unfortunately you lose touch a little. For example my wife left me with our small son on Saturday while she went to the hairdressers. It had been a long time since I had fed him. He is now eating what they call I believe junior foods. These have to be the messiest, most unappetizing little tinned lunches in the world. At any rate, I was commissioned to feed the baby, strained tinned liver along with other things. Just the smell of liver is enough for me. Pulverize it into a gray semi-liquid mess like in those Junior food tins and liver becomes without a doubt the worlds most obnoxious food. Now along with the liver my wife left a tin of squash, which is in my books another one of natures most nothing foods. The little guy did well for three or four spoonsful and then he got the idea it would be a nice gesture to offer daddy a spoonful of mashed liver mixed with mashed squash. I was trapped. Several old clichés is flashed through my mind. "Set a good example." "Like father like son." "How do you expect him to eat it if his father won't". So like a brave little soldier I shut my eyes, held my nose and took a spoonful. Yeeek. Nothing which tastes that bad can be good for a kid, I don't care what you say. One good turn deserves another so it was one for baby, one for daddy until the unholy mess was gone. Now don't tell me the modern day parent doesn't suffer for all his offspring. When my wife came home we reached an agreement. The next time she leaves me in charge of the child's luncheon menu, the boy either eats T-bone steak, fried onions and hash-browns, or no deal! I made the supreme sacrifice Saturday. That was enough liver and squash for two lifetimes.