What Exactly is a Spoon For?

Being on a family vacation and eating in restaurants during almost every meal gives me the ability to spend much more time watching my two boys' table manners - I'm not cooking and doing kitchen duty, so I have much more time to watch what they're doing.  The crazy thing is that I realized I became obsessed this week with a most mundane thing - the Spoon!

At one point, one of my boys ordered spaghetti, and a spoon arrived in his bowl of pasta.  The next thing I saw was my son trying to eat spaghetti with the spoon!  When I asked what he thought he was doing (quietly), he told me that a spoon had arrived in his bowl, so he assumed that he was supposed to use it to eat the dish.  So, I immediately reminded him about our placemats which teach "Twirl your pasta with your fork on a spoon" to make it bite-sized.  When he realized what I was talking about, he knew exactly what to do....but seeing him trying to initially eat spaghetti with a spoon cracked me up!

A second time, both boys ordered spinach as a side dish.  Even though they were not planning to share their vegetable, their side orders arrived in bowls with a spoon.  I assumed they knew that if one orders something as a "side" at a restaurant, most times it will be served in a way that can be shared.  But both boys picked up the spoons with which their spinach was served and started eating directly from the bowl with the spoons!  Mommy Manners was appalled!!!  I explained nicely that if a spoon comes with a side vegetable like spinach, it is expected that you will use the spoon as a SERVING PIECE and you should use the spoon to put some of the spinach on your own plate.  Then, you use a fork to eat the side dish on your own plate.

I explained to my boys that the only time I could think of that you actually EAT something with a spoon is when you are served SOUP or when you are served ICE CREAM or a PUDDING.....I can't think of any other time that you would actually use a spoon to eat something.

If you can think of some other food with which you would eat with a spoon, voice your opinion here in our Comments Section.  We all want to hear!!  I am waiting to determine what else we would eat with our spoons!