Hunting For A Moderation

June 11, 2012

On a wing of having just returned from Boston and thinking about MIT (more like dreaming) for the kid, I thought that watching Good Will Hunting on our next “movie night” would be a great choice.

I love this scene from the movie, psychotherapy at its best 🙂 As a mental health professional though, I have to say, the “Hollywood” version is so much better. In real life, you just get cursed at and stormed out on, but for that very rare break-through moment, you learn to brush your personal feelings aside and let all those other fits pass you by. And yes, there were so many times I wanted to just punch them in the face or throw an “F U” back in their faces, a la the many scenes in this movie, but despite what you’ve been shown, you just can’t do it in real life, not, of course, if you still want to keep your license and practice. Thou shall not punch, curse at, kill, sleep with or screw the patient in any other way.

And just like the movie therapist, I’ve said it so may times (to myself, and the kid on certain occasions, and to patients), “It is not your fault”, but as the ears hear it, and the mind “gets” it, the emotional core remains untouched and unconvinced, and it may take years (and a hard work), if ever, for the words to slowly sink in and take effect. Yes, it is just so much better in movies, faster too!

OK, back to the actual movie. Apparently I didn’t remember that along with a wonderful story-line and MIT scenes, the movie is heavily laced with F-bombs and sexually explicit references. So, how do you moderate that in a kid’s presence, especially when you’re already in the middle of the movie?! I guess you have three choices: shut the movie off, have “the talk” and discuss things, or simply stay silent and just concentrate on the movie. If the kid were much younger, I’d have to go with the first choice, and chances are, I’d check the movie rating beforehand. But dealing with a high schooler, and having had “the talk” many times before, I know there is little to none that he hasn’t heard already (granted, not always in his mom’s presence), and he knows I don’t pretend to be a prude without being overly revealing. “There is a time and a place and circumstances for certain things” has been our family motto that has worked so far, we both don’t pretend we’re naive and clueless, but however we behave with our peers, we do not curse and discuss private things (from my side) in front of each other. So I was left with the only feasible on-the-spot solution – continue watching the movie and provide some distraction during the most sensitive monologues. Remember the scene with a joke about the pilot and the stewardess? Those kind of moments you don’t really strive to share with your 15 year-old. But the joke was pretty funny though 🙂

So how do you moderate all that? With food of course. I don’t know how it is in your house, but since I have a teenager, food is a hot currency here, it becomes a bribe, a point of barter and in this case a necessary distraction. Apparently when you chew (and you actually like the food) some brain switch keeps your concentration on that process, just long enough to help you swim through the most “interesting” scenes in the movie.

And that’s what we did, we chewed a lot during those two hours 🙂

What’s Cooking This Week

Right before the movie started, the kid asked for some cookies and tea to have during the evening feature. And instead of each of us enjoying out own cookie plate, gluten free for me and regular for him, I thought it’d be nice to make a treat we can both share. We agreed that scones would be a great addition to have along with tea. And since I didn’t have a lot of time to spend, I made a few shortcuts by using a pre-mixed gluten free flour blend. They were ready in a NY minute 🙂

Quick Chocolate Almond Scones

1 box pre-mixed sweetened gluten free flour blend (I used Gluten Free Pantry)

6 oz container of chocolate or plain yogurt or buttermilk (I used So Delicious Dairy Free)

1 egg

1 cup of almond milk (or regular one), plus more for brushing

6 Tbspoons of cold butter (I used Earth Balance Coconut Spread)

2 Tbspoons of cocoa (3 if using plain yogurt or buttermilk)

1/4 cup of chopped or slivered almonds

Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees. Cut small pieces of butter spread into the pre-mixed flour and with the fork break in and mix it all well. The blend will look kind of coarse and grainy.

Mix in the egg, yogurt, cocoa and almonds, the batter will be thick.

Flour a surface, first make a ball and then roll out the dough about 3/4 – 1 inch thick, cut it into 8 pieces. Brush the tops with almond milk (or buttermilk) and sprinkle with sugar.