If You Give a Kid a Pancake ...

If you give a kid a pancake ...

She'll want some syrup to go with it. You'll give her some of her favorite maple syrup.

She'll probably ask you if it's organic. When you say you're not sure, she'll check the label to make sure you're being kind to the environment and notice that it was made in Quebec.

She begin to tell you that the Quebec maple syrup supply suffered a massive drop in 2008, so she'll probably drag you to the computer to find out why.

She'll google "Quebec maple syrup supply" and find a link to "honey bee population decline." About that time, her older brother will come in and probably want to know what we're doing.

He'll probably remind us of a recent Mythbusters episode where they tested the myth that you can swim just as fast in syrup as you can in water. The kids will decide to try it, so they'll charge out to the backyard to see if they can re-create the myth.

As they run screaming toward the hose, their younger brother will probably ask, "What are they doing?" I'll answer, "seeing if they can swim as fast in syrup as in water." He'll ask, "Where's the syrup?" to which I'll answer, "We're out." (which, fortunately, we are).

He'll probably run to the back door, yelling, "Mom says we're out of syrup." One of the kids will probably  shout, "Okay, then let's see if we can swim faster in Jello!" and charge off toward the pantry, and the other will yell, "Mom, how much Jello will it take to fill up the pool?"

I'll answer, "I don't know, but we don't have any anyway," to which one of the kids will probably reply, "Hmph." About that time, one of the kids will notice a bee land on the flower of a weed in the backyard. He'll probably say, "Look! I thought the bee population was in decline!" One of the other kids will probably say, "Let's find out if it's true!"

They'll come sliding into the house, dripping, and run back to the computer. They'll google "honey bee population decline" and find out that the decline may be related to pesticide use. One of them will probably shout, "See, Mom! It's a good thing that syrup is organic!" 

One of the others will notice a link to information on Africanized bees and will get scared. One of them will probably start reading the history of how bees in Texas became Africanized, which will morph into an impromptu geography lesson about Brazil and Sao Paulo.

One of the kids will probably ask, "Isn't the samba the national dance of Brazil?" I'll then hear from across the house (since I'm trying to sneak away at this point), "MOM, can you show me how to samba?" I'll yell back, "I don't know how, but let's look at it on YouTube." We'll look up the samba, which will give us a link to Matt (Where the Hell Is Matt?) learning to dance the samba.

They'll all starting samba-ing, as I slowly backstep out of the office, which will quickly degenerate into a wrestling match. 

I'll probably hear giggles and squeals, and then shortly afterward, feet pitter-pattering toward the kitchen. One of them will sigh, "I'm so sweaty, I'm sticky!" which will remind them of their favorite maple syrup.

They'll probably ask me for some. And chances are, if they ask me for some syrup, they'll want a pancake to go with it.

(At least that's the way it is in our house.)

Based on the book If You Give a Pig a Pancake