Decisions, Decisions

Ryan wanted to make his own peanut butter and jelly sandwich today. I'm all for independence and letting kids accomplish tasks for themselves, but peanut butter and jelly? That could get messy. VERY messy. He has been making his own cheese sandwiches for months. Since he doesn't like anything but cheese on bread it's really not too bad. He sometimes ends up tearing the cheese in little bits and placing it all in the middle of the bread. That's fine with me because it's not messy and he is still getting the same amount of nutrition he would have been getting anyway. This peanut butter and jelly thing has HUGE mess written all over it. Against my better judgement I let him do it. I did give him some assistance, like holding the jar for him and guiding the knife when he was getting his jam. He did most of it himself with some "here use the knife this way" and "let's turn your plate so you don't get peanut butter on your arm" he did a really good job. It was really hard to let him take that step though. Sometimes it's just easier at this age to do it for him. He does get a lot of joy out of doing it himself though, so I guess it's worth a little extra mess and some heartburn.