It would figure that I would find some way to humiliate my daughter in the first week of kindergarten..

I was packing her lunch one night and was putting in a sugar free chocolate pudding I had just bought for her. Two days earlier I had put in a real spoon and was worried that it might accidentially get thrown away.  I remembered that I had a bunch of the toss and take utensils and plates that were given to me as a gift at my baby shower. I asked my husband if he thought that she would mind if I gave her a plastic spoon instead of a real one. “Nah, she won’t even know the difference” he said. OK good, then I won’t worry about losing real spoons.

I was picking her up from school the next day, when she got in the car and immediately said “I didn’t eat my pudding today”. “why” I asked. “Because the other kids said I had a baby spoon and that I was a baby” OMG what did I do to my poor kid. “What did you tell them, sweety” “I said. she said “stop teasing me, I’m not a baby” and then put her lunch away.

I felt so bad! I could not believe that a plastic spoon would cause so much trouble and it was all my fault, just because I was worried about my spoons getting thrown away.

I apologized to her over and over, telling her that mommy did not mean to give her a baby spoon and that I gave it to her because it was plastic and able to throw away.  She said that was ok! But deep down I knew it wasn’t.

I didn’t ask her about it again (although I wanted to know exactly who it was, no one makes fun of my kid) because I didn’t want her to think it was a big deal.  I’ve tried to pack her applesauce since then, but I only get it back with a very clean spoon.

I asked her about the spoon at lunch and she said she doesn’t take it out of her lunch box, so believe me, anything that requires a spoon to be eaten will now be an afterschool snack instead of lunch.