I was at the Beverly Center today in Los Angeles.  Not my favorite place in the world.  I dislike malls, but make the trek when I need to.  Today, I needed a Mrs. Fields Cookie.  Not for me; for my wife.  She loves the cookies there and I was on the hunt for a Valentine’s Day cookie.  Something heart-shaped and gooey.  While I was in line, half my attention was on the warm-baked goodness coming from the small, but industrial kitchen.  The other half of my attention was commanded by a woman and her three small children.  If I had to guess, I would say they were 9, 5 and 3 respectively.  Like me, the children were fascinated by the array of options available to them.  Unlike me, they were smashed against the glass – the only barrier between the germs on their hands and the purity of butter, sugar and chocolate lurking innocently behind it.  I could tell the mother was exacerbated, if not exhausted.  The kids were changing their minds.  “M&M’s”.  “I want that one!” Which one?  “That one!’.  The mother had to point to at least three cookies before the young girl nodded with glee, gazing at the carefully and correctly selected cookie of choice.  It took all of the mother’s effort and patience to place and order for three cookies, one for each of her children.  The woman behind the counter announced that when you buy three cookies, you get a fourth for free.  It took her a few attempts for the mother to understand, given the girl behind the counter’s heavy accent.  Finally, the mother comprehended that the three cookies she was intending to buy for her bratty children was going to yield a cookie for her .  She took a sigh of relief and you could tell a noticeable difference in her physical demeanor.  As if she was finally being rewarded for countless experiences where she had to make a choice from an endless tray of cookies, an endless shelf of fruit drinks, a boundless supply of candy… whatever it is or could be, I learned two things today.

1)    parenting is exhausting and the ultimate sacrifice

2)    there are too many options in the word

How can we possibly make a decision with so many options available to us?  What doesn’t have a options?  The post office, I guess.  The DMV.  Anything run by the government?  Now, here is an area where I wish we had more options…