Creating A Cocoa-phony Of Bad Flavor

(I’m making brownies, and my three-year-old little brother is helping. I measure the ingredients and he pours them in. For this particular recipe, you mix the cocoa, baking soda, oil, and water together before adding sugar.)

Brother: “It looks yummy! I’m gonna taste it!”

Me: “Don’t taste it yet. There’s no sugar in it. It’ll taste gross.”

Brother: “Nuh-uh! It’s chocolate; it’ll be yummy!”

(And to prove me wrong, he dips his finger in the incomplete batter and takes a big lick of it.)

Brother: “See, [My Name]? It’s yum—” *face slowly crumples in a grimace of disgust* “Ick!”

Me: *laughs* “Go get a drink of water, and then come back and help me add sugar.”

(I let him lick the bowl after we’d finished to help him forget the taste of sugarless cocoa. Sometimes a kid just has to learn things through experience, I suppose.)