In the Era of Chicken Nuggets . . .

. . . children have forgotten how to eat a drumstick. At least, Matthew has. Or maybe he's never known how to bite into a chicken leg because of the rampant use of chicken nuggets in restaurants. Or maybe it's just Matthew because the kid just doesn't know how to eat food properly, i.e., he bites the bottom out of ice cream cones. Or maybe his mother continually serves him chicken nuggets and cuts meat off the bone for him. Yeah, that's probably it.

I bought some chicken tonight for dinner, actual chicken parts, not "chicken" or "parts," but actual chicken. I put a chicken leg on Matthew's plate and sat down next to him to eat dinner. He promptly picked up the chicken leg and took a big bite out of the drumstick. The bony part. Then came the spitting out of bony pieces. I was amazed that it wasn't second nature for a kid to pick up a drumstick and start eating.

So we had "Chicken Leg 101" and I showed Matthew where to bite the drumstick. However, after the first mouthful of the bony pieces, I ended up taking the meat off the bone for him. He soon lost interest in the chicken leg, but I'm sure he'll be hungry again in a little bit. Maybe we'll try the other drumstick.