Another Stellar Moment in Parenting

Last week at farmers market Tim was enticed to try some samples of prickly pear fruit. The vendors were quite convincing, explaining that the fruit was de-prickled and Tim brought some home for us all to try. After dinner one night we remembered it and decided to try the cactus fruit. Tim pulled it out of the fridge and after some ginger handling declared he couldn't feel any prickers and went about washing and peeling it to dish up. Matilda objected, exclaiming that she wanted a turn to feel the fruit too. Tim handed over the fruit for her inspection, she then passed it back, he sliced it up and we all ate it up comparing the flavors to watermelon, kiwi and tomato. Several minutes later Tim started to feel some prickles in his hand and started to work with the tweezers. Sadly, Matilda's complaints followed not long after. She wouldn't verbally tell us what was wrong but instead spent the next 1.5 hours breaking out in little sobbing fits and clenching her fists. She wasn't crying the entire time, so at least we can feel marginally better about our stupid move. After a totally unsuccessful attempt to get near Matilda with tweezers and trying a soak in the bath we turned to the internet: duct tape was the recommended solution. It worked like a charm. We gave M some pieces of tape to hold and played a little "Got-your-fingers" game and she was all fixed. However, the moral of the story remains that de-prickled prickly pear fruit are not in fact prickle-free: do not give them to your toddler.