Every day I get to be cafeteria god

By Christian Price, News9.com INsite Team

My son's school is in our neighborhood, so we both eat breakfast every day together at the school cafeteria. I have learned a lot about his school and his classmates.

One of my earlier breakfast experiences happened while my son and I were waiting in the serving line. The little girl in front of us was staring at me, and then shifted her gaze towards my boy. Innocently curious, she asked my son who I was. Instantly my boy replied, "He's my papi, my daddy." The girl looked at both of us one more time and said, "I don't know where my daddy lives, but he doesn't live with me." All I could think of saying was, "Just because he doesn't live with you, doesn't mean he doesn't love you."

My son saved me from the deep conversation by telling both of us to move forward. Apparently we were holding up the line.

The table where we eat at is a whole different story.

There is a boy that is constantly making fun of other boys when they have to sit next to a girl. After three days of this non-stop teasing, I finally said, "At least somebody wants to sit next to him. No one is sitting around you!" Once the realization of what I just said set in for the boy, he sat down and ate without a word.

Since my son started school this year, his vocabulary has grown to now include some interesting new additions.

While at the breakfast table, an older child was sitting on the opposite side of us, and a little bit down from us. As we were eating our delicious ‘breakfast pizza', this kid started quizzing everyone around him if they knew what the real name was for a specific body part, but he was using the correct name for the part. All of the younger children started looking around, asking other students if they knew what the word meant. In a matter of moments, just like a grass fire, everyone at the breakfast table was talking about this word. I stood up; bent over to where the student was who started this sat, and told him I knew what the word stood for. I then went and pointed him out to a teacher.

The majority of my breakfast experiences are great. To some of the younger students, I am a cafeteria god. I stand up to bullies, open milk when needed and eat Apple Jacks just like everyone else.

I can't understand why more parents don't eat with their children. Where else can you eat a meal for a dollar and some change? I have even learned cheat codes to some of my Playstation games I gave up on.

Starting your day off as a cafeteria god is a great way to start your day. Try it sometime.