The Pudding is Political

My daughter wants Jell-o pudding cups. She has seen them tucked inside the lunch boxes of friends' at school and they seem exotic and she imagines that they must taste like chocolate fireworks, a flavor parade. I've told her that they don't taste that good. I've told her that they are chock full of chemicals. I've told her that they create waste and that all that plastic ends up in landfills or in the sea where it kills dolphins and, if the dolphins die, there will be no more sunlight or rainbows or ice cream. Okay...that last part I haven't told her...yet. I have assured her that I can make pudding for her to take in her lunch but she just shakes her head, bats her eyes and murmurs, "Jell-o pudding cups". Stupid Jell-o pudding cups have enchanted her. So, Luisa went to the co-op and bought some organic chocolate pudding mix. I know I could make it from scratch scratch but let's not go crazy - I'm no June Cleaver. Today was the day to make the pudding and Zeca was excited to help me (she wants to watch me make everything these days because she says, "I'm afraid I won't know how to make anything when I'm adult!"). We got out the pan and she poured in the chocolate pudding mix before adding the milk. Through it all, however, she continued to pine for the beloved Jell-o pudding cups and I continued to extoll the virtues of pudding made on the stovetop. It uses real milk! We can put it in small reusable containers! It will be just like Jell-o pudding cups but we'll make them ourselves! She ignored me. She was unconvinced. So, we stirred and we mixed and it thickened and bubbled and then we were finally able to pour it into the cute little containers. She perked up a bit seeing them lined up and ready for lunchboxes. She then asked if she could have one and I said, "Sure Beav and I'll join ya". All true but the Beav part. We sat down at the table and I reminded her that it was still hot and then she proceeded to burn her tongue...and cry. She didn't say it but I know she was thinking, "No one ever burns their tongue on a Jell-o pudding cup!" I yummed my way through my pudding and, when she finally got down to the business of eating hers, she said, "Oh my god, mom! This is amazing!" I shouted with zeal, "I know!" When we finished, she put the lids on the little lunch containers and said, "Now, I'll have pudding for my lunches!" She seems temporarily content and my only hope is that the other kids don't mock her homemade pudding cups. If they do, I'm gonna tell her to tell them that every time they eat one of those evil pre-packaged puddings, they kill a dolphin. Sure, she won't be popular but she'll at least feel the might of the righteous.