I honestly didn't know what to do. I thought of the story my mom told about how her father was dipping a chopstick in beer and feeding it to my cousin Mavis when she was a baby. I thought of Lisa talking about her parents allowing her to have a taste of beer when she was young (but she was much older than Kai). "We're European that way," she said with a smirk, and we laughed! Funny how it didn't feel as wrong when you hear about someone else being offered some beer at a young age but, when it comes to your own child, it's just flat out WRONG.
Before I could react, Bill picked up his glass and offered Kai a sip of his jasmine IPA. His strategy was to let the bitterness of beer does the work. He figured Kai would not like the taste of beer after he has tasted it, so he would not want to drink beer (for a long long time). I actually thought it was brilliant. Let the kid experience something that we know he won't like so that, to Kai, we're the cool patents who let him do things, yet the experience itself should be enough to kill the curiosity.
The little boy took a sip of his dad's beer and immediately made a "Yuck" face. My mom, Bill and I laughed with satisfaction and relief. "Well?" Bill asked, "What do you think? Did you like it?"
Kai was scraping the taste off of his tongue with his teeth, but he said, "I liked it. More please."
What?! That's not how it was supposed to go down. Bill gave Kai another taste (in my head, I was screaming, "Are you mad?"). Kai's facial features were all squished in the center of his face like a Chinese steamed bun, yet he declared, "Kaikai likes it."
"Oh you're only saying it because you're such a little performer, and each time you take a sip, we all laugh." I said it as I took the dishes to the kitchen.
Evidently, unlike my grandfather or Lisa's parents, I'm not European that way.
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