Life Lessons from Breakfast Served Around the World

Hello Meltingpot Community,

If I made a list of some of my favorite things in the world, children, breakfast foods and international travel would all be in the the top-ten. For me, one of the hidden blessings of the  pandemic is that I get to spend more time with my children and my breakfast game has leveled up since I spend way more time in the kitchen.  But international travel? Clearly, that is a passion I’ve had to mourn.

But, as I wrote here on the blog earlier in the pandemic, armchair travel is still possible and we can still explore distant lands from the comfort of our own homes. We just have to get creative with our “travel methods.” I mean it is a much safer and cheaper way to explore these days.

Life Lessons from Breakfast Served Around the World

Here’s one way to armchair travel that combines my favorite things – breakfast food, children and foreign destinations – and offers life lessons we can take into our daily routines. Dive into this stupendous photo essay from The New York Times magazine called,  “What Kids Around the World Eat for Breakfast.” Besides providing a colorful and delicious glimpse into other cultures and their morning meals, the story proved to me that what we eat for breakfast doesn’t need to be limited by arbitrary rules. Pickled vegetables and rice? Yes. Chocolate and bread? Sounds tasty to me. I might draw the line at rainbow sprinkles before 10am, but hey, you never know when breakfast just may need an extra splash of color.

The point is, when we look at how other cultures approach life, we realize that there are so many more ways to get things done, especially when it comes to parenting. From breakfast to bedtime routines, we can learn a lot by exploring other cultural practices and traditions. It’s quite freeing actually to think that the “American way,” isn’t the only way. Remember that book, Bringing up Bebé, not that we should raise our children like French children, but the idea that we can look at other cultures for better parenting practices, is very true. Another great book that explores this idea, looking at parenting practices all over the world, comparing them to the US version, is How do Eskimos Keep their Babies Warm? by Mei-Ling Hopgood.

Borrow from Other Cultures

One practice I’ve adopted from my husband’s Spanish culture, as it relates to parenting and food, is eating dinner closer to 9pm in the summer months. I used to beat myself up for being that mom who could never get dinner on the table by 6:30pm. But in the summer time when nobody has to be awake early for school, I’m perfectly okay eating at the Spanish dinner hour. It works for me. It works for our family. And nobody has ever gotten hurt 🙂

It’s Your Turn to Try Breakfast from Around the World

What traditions or practices have you picked up or borrowed from other cultures when it comes to food and /or parenting? I’d love to hear your experiences. Leave me a comment below.