Foodie Friday: Confession—I'm a selfish foodie.

When someone takes my food, I get crabby!

I've had the pleasure of writing a number of picture books for Little Boost, a series that addresses typical preschool challenges in sweet and humorous ways. If you read the ones I wrote, you might notice something. My characters tend to get mad over food, even though food has nothing to do with the theme of the books!

So why does food anger keep showing up in my books? Well, the answer is somewhat personal: I hate to share delicious things. Those preschool emotions come from my real life experiences of being a selfish foodie. Consider the following:

• If someone takes the last brownie, it puts me in a funk. I just can't shake my sadness. So it's no wonder that Roger from Crabby Pants gets mad when his brother eats the last frozen waffle, leaving him with cereal. 

• I once returned a cookie at Starbucks because it did not have an adequate number of peanut butter candy chunks. So is it any wonder that You Get What You Get's Melvin gets annoyed if his sister's cookie has more chocolate chips than his cookie?

• Like the bear in Eleanore Won't Share, I'm good at sharing things I don't really like. Eleanore shares the black jelly beans. I share the green ones. And when my kids want a piece of fruit, I push the apples so the nectarines will be there for me later. 

Looking at these facts, I can see that this is not a flattering situation. Deep down, I know that food tastes better when it is shared with those you love. And lets be honest, like most women my age, I need to consider portion control — sharing would help with that. But until I'm ready to change my selfish ways, I think I will bake more brownies and buy more nectarines. As Roger and Melvin and Eleanore know, doing the right thing is hard sometimes. It takes time. But I suppose it's worth it in the end.