Thanks for sharing

We are, in some ways, a family of skimpers and sharers. Sam and I usually share a meal if we go out to eat. We share a milkshake (between the five of us. More kids=new diet plan) at the drive-in. We always, always order from the Value Menu (it is like this post, and many of the comments are interesting too---but that is not my point here). Figuring out how to agree on a choice, what we will share, is for us a habitual part of ordering anything, anywhere. Yes, certainly there are ways we could be more frugal, and ways that we are much more spoiled than the previous generation---in that we are able to go out to eat at all, for example. But since Sam and I both grew up that way, the habits were sort of engrained in us in some form at least. And sharing, getting less, making do with the small size instead of the large, etc. also seems like a good choice most of the time---cheaper, healthier, and so forth. We'd keep doing it because we want to, even if we didn't necessarily have to.

But.

The other day Sam and I were out somewhere and we saw these kids, maybe 8 and 10 years old, eating ice cream with their mom. They both had these huge ice creams---waffle cones, double scoops, etc., and they were sitting there licking at them vaguely (not excitedly or anything), and suddenly I had had enough. I was indignant.

"Who do those kids think they are?" I hissed. "Look at them! Eating those huge ice cream cones---each of them with their OWN---and they don't even care! And they're just kids! I've lived three times as long as those kids and I've still NEVER had an ice cream that big all to myself! Not in my whole life!!

"It's not that I don't like sharing," I said (warming to my theme). "I might even prefer it. But it just doesn't seem fair. Look at those kids! Eight years old! Large-size ice creams all to themselves! And me nearly thirty and still waiting for such a thing. Does that seem right?"

"It's not right," agreed Sam. (He may have patted my arm.) "It's just not right. I will buy you your very own big ice cream. We'll go next week for family home evening."

So the next week we went out to a ice cream place and I ordered MY OWN. (The rest of the family shared a banana split. Old habits die hard.) And Sam kept telling the boys, "That one is JUST FOR MOMMY. You can't have a taste." And I ate it happily (although I did end up sharing some at the end because I got too full---but it was okay because I didn't have to) and it was delicious!! I felt like some kind of balance had been restored to the universe. "It was a dream come true," I said to Sam. "Thank you, my dear."

I think that was all I needed. And now I'm ready to go back to sharing.

7 comments

  1. Oh my heck!!! Are you for real?
    I am laughing my head off. Five of you share a shake?
    Amazed.me
    I read your link and it rings true for any marriage. On the one hand Joel thinks we should eat out (fast food=disgusting to me) twice a week, and on the other hand he thinks when we go to Disneyland we only have to budget $30 a day for food, because if we go to Wendy's and everybody gets two things off the value menu, that's only $15 per meal (breakfast is free at the hotel, maybe?)
    I'm glad you got your own ice cream cone, but really? you're ready to go back to sharing? I hate sharing, especially food, and maybe it has to do with growing up with all those brothers and sisters, always sharing EVERYTHING, so now I refuse to share a meal when Joel and I go out. It doesn't matter if I'm not even hungry. It's the principle of the matter.
    So, a dream has come true for you, eh? What's next? Sthingi?

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  2. Bethie: Ha! Maybe I should have said, I'm ready to go back to sharing . . . until the next time. :) I reserve the right.

    And it helps that Sam and I tend to like the same foods. I would hate it if it meant compromising for something I didn't even like!

    It's probably true about all those siblings you had, too. There were only 4 of us. And as the only girl there were lots of things I didn't have to share. Whereas YOU and Tia and Laura will probably never fully recover from all the sharing. Poor little lambs.

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  3. Let's to go Sub-Zero the next time you're in Utah County and have my new favorite: raspberry ice cream with brownie bits :)

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  4. The economics/health aspects of your arrangement really appeal to me. But I'm glad you got your own ice-cream cone at last.

    I'm afraid I'm currently in a sharing extravagantly mode. I love getting to pick out two different menu items together and splitting them in half so we can try some of both. At lots of places, one meal between two would certainly suffice.

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  5. This is funny to me--we were that way in my family a lot of the time too-very frugal, nobody gets a soda, kids all share a big meal at Los Hermanos, that kind of thing.
    We never got any churros at disneyland...obviously deprived.
    anyway, Kris's family is the opposite. They always got sodas, they got to order whatever they wanted off the menu no matter the cost.
    So it's been a interesting melding of two worlds.
    I don't like sharing with Kris though. It makes me do defensive eating. I eat more and faster than I would if I just had my own.
    But I'd be skinnier if I always shared. Hmmmm.....

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  6. Isn't that just the way, though? You just have to have it once. Just once, to make things right. Then you can walk away and forget about it. I loved that.

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  7. I shoulda read Gin's before I said anything. We had to be careful with money - it's an artist's life, unless you're in the Jim Christensen level of artist-and-money. But it was also waste- you buy kids their own, and you throw half of it away. And if you don't, they get fat. And churros are NOT WORTH THE MONEY. I did buy her one once, darn it. Sheesh. But sharing with a husband can be problematic. MY man says, "You have to give me a bite of that) and then takes this huge bite of the part you were saving for last. I don't share well anymore, thanks to that, darn it.

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