Story Time

This is Daddy's Father's Day present.

Daddy's home now, and that means more exciting bedtime stories for Cim. Last night her request was for a "chomping food" story. It went something like this:


Once upon a time, there was a little girl who liked to chomp her food. She would chomp food all day long if it was available. 

One day, her mother approached her and said, "You chomp your food like a goat. You chew your cud like a cow. You nibble like a horse. And frankly, it's disgusting.

And the little girl said, "Why, whatever do you mean?"

The mother said, "In polite company, we chew with our lips closed."

The little girl considered this, and then protested, "But if I close my lips while I'm chomping my food, that places my lips dangerously close to my teeth. How will I keep from biting them?"

The mother replied, "That, my dear, is one of the dangerous orthodoxies with which we live. So from now on, you will please chew your food with your lips shut."

So the little girl began to chomp her food with her lips shut. At first, she was nervous, afraid that she would bite her lips. But she didn't. And in the end, she realized that chewing with her lips closed was not only more couth and polite, but it prevented her half-chewed food from falling back out of her mouth again. From then on both she and her mother were much happier at mealtimes--which, at this house, were frequent.

The End