Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Starting him early

My parents are originally from Britain; my father was born there, my mother's family is from there. What effect this has had on their drinking preferences, I don't know, but being at my parents means that almost all of your beverages are either caffeinated or alcoholic. Coffee in the mornings; tea in the afternoon and evening; alcohol in between the two tea times.

I remember as a child that tea time was a particular occasion at my father's parents' house. There were trays of china cups and sugar bowls with actual sugar cubes and sugar tongs, and plates of cake -- mostly fruit cake, but the occasional peek frean for us children. I got the demitasse, and was allowed to tong my own sugar cubes. I can't have been much more than three. 

This morning, like many mornings before this one, I made tea, from loose leaves, in a pot, and poured myself a cup. This is a morning ritual, so much so that my son's first word was "hot!" because I said it so often to him while carrying my first steaming cup of the morning. This morning, as he has done lately, he's asked for milky tea, and instead of the usual milk and hot water, I've added actual tea. 

It's only just occurred to me this morning that feeding a three year old tea might be weird. I mean, don't get me wrong, the tea is only about a quarter of the cup -- the rest is diluted with hot water, and then half of it is milk. So ... weigh in, will you? Is three too young for caffeine? Even a small bit like tea? I am curious. It seems normal to me but I seem to realize that this isn't perhaps normal. 

For the record, he sucks it back like a consummate pro, finishing the cup in less time than it takes me to sit down. Perhaps this is why I feel like I'm feeding him some illicit drug.

2 comments:

wealhtheow said...

I think it's okay to give him tea as much as it's okay to give him chocolate. (SP has been eating chocolate for ... many years now; I'd let her try tea or coffee if she wanted to, but she doesn't, so I never have.)

I don't think I'd give him coffee, though. That's just asking for trouble. ;)

As an aside, I can remember trying sips of beer, wine, &c. from my parents' glasses when I was very young -- certainly no more than four. I used to like beer foam a lot when I was about eight. This early exposure didn't have any detrimental effects on me that I'm aware of ...

AvenSarah said...

I'm actually thinking about this, too -- E's been accepting that tea is for Mommy and Daddy only, but is starting to get curious, and I really can't think of any reason not to let him have some -- heavily watered/milked down, of course, as you say. And as wealhtheow says, he's already eating chocolate, so I can't imagine the caffeine in a couple of tablespoons of tea will be much more.
So consider that a vote for "not weird". :)
(And yes, the British bkgd of my family means that we, too, drink our own weight in tea most days... well, I exaggerate, but you know what I mean!)