A Lenten choice

What are you giving up for Lent?

"Vegetables!"

"Home work!"

These are the things my boys wish to give up for Lent.

While I think both are worthy candidates for giving up, as their removal would make my life an awful lot easier; I had to ask the boys to reassess just what Lent was all about.

There was a universal groan round the kitchen table.

"So what do you like that you could give up?" I asked.

Bog Boy looked firmly down at his plate to avoid my gaze and muttered: "Vegetables!" mutinously under his breath.

The Boy looked thoughtfully over my shoulder. Then came back at me sharply.

"Question is Mum, what are you going to give up?"

"Biscuits and cake," I said virtuously, while thinking that the chances of me sustaining more than three days without either would be extremely thin. Thank God I didn’t say alcohol!

"Look boys the time from Shrove Tuesday to Easter Sunday is 47 days but we only need to do 40 days of fasting. Did you know we get Sunday off? So every Sunday you can eat or do whatever  it is that you give up. Do you think you could do that?"

Bog Boy perked up at this: “So in Sunday I could eat sweeties ALL day"

"Well not all day but you could have sweets on Sunday."

"Lots of sweets?"

He’s a hard negotiator my youngest

"A lot of sweets," I agreed wishing to stop the bargaining process before I was committed to buying family packs of sweeties for his consumption every Sunday.

My eldest considered this for a while.

"Chocolate!" he said. "I will give up chocolate but only if I can eat it on Sunday like you promised."

"You know that will mean no chocolate biscuits too don’t you?" I replied.

"What no bourbons?!!!"

"No Jaffa cakes!!!" piped the youngest.

"No sweeties, no chocolate, and chocolate is sweeties do you understand." I am a hard mother.

There was a considered silence round the table.

The tap at the sink dripped.

Finally The Boy nodded as if he had come to a great decision.

"Can we think on it at school today Mum. It's a big decision."

I nodded and smiled to myself. I, of course am only giving up biscuits and cakes - the joy is I can still eat sweeties! I wonder if they will catch on before the end of the day....