October 30 is the eve of All Saints Day, now also called Halloween night, and in Catalonia, to celebrate that party, in addition to cooking chestnuts and eating panellets, children make a craft disguising a sweet potato.
Last year we disguised two sweet potatoes at home, one dressed as an adventurer, which is the one you see in the photo above, aka “Boniato Jones”, which was the one Jon (7 a.) Took to school and another Batman dress, aka "Batboniato", which was the one that led Aran (4 a.).
Once the holiday passes, sweet potatoes return home. They were with us for a few days, and when they began to dry Miriam told me: "Armando, go, throw the sweet potato now that in a few days will start to walk alone" (I say the Sweet Potato Jones, because Batboniato arrived later and did not do a lot of case). Neither she nor I expected it, but Jon and Aran, both present, began shouting "Nooooooo!", Suffering for their sweet potato, and jumped for us in clear sign that at that time we were the cruelest beings in the world. Do you want to know how we resolved this conflict? Well keep reading. With all of you: The sweet potato traveler.
Four ways to deal with the conflict
Of course, given the situation that was presented to us, in which we had dried sweet potatoes at home that would soon begin to decompose and some children who apparently had taken care of them (I say apparently, because in the time they were at home nobody made them case), we decided that the conflict had to be resolved in some way, glimpsing, by boat soon, four possible options.
Sweet potatoes are going to rot, so you have to throw them away
One of the options was explain the harsh reality: “They are very beautiful, we had a good time disguising them, but they are drying up and soon they will be in bad shape. You will not like to see them like that, so it is best to throw them away. ” Of course, just like Jon, this explanation can be worth it and he can understand it without problems, but Aran, who was 3 years old at the time, might not understand too much that the character he had created should end up in the trash, so we chose not to be So sincere
Ok, so we leave them ...
Another option was do nothing, pay attention to them, leave them with sweet potatoes at home and wait for them to be so unrecognizable that then they should be thrown away. Nor did we find the best solution and, honestly, we didn't feel like having two sweet potatoes decomposing until they died. Hey, what a bad option at all is not because they can understand that sweet potatoes also "die", but as there were other options ...
When they don't find out, they disappear
The third option, which I think many people choose, is that of make the problem disappear when they are clueless, when days go by without seeing them. To do it with a little intelligence, after a few days without paying attention to them, sweet potatoes could spend a few more days in a closet, far from their visual range. In case you remember them and ask us about them, a “they are here in the closet” saves you. In case of not remembering them, they eventually move to the afterlife.
The problem with this option is that children have an enviable memory and when you least expect it, even when months have passed, they go and ask you: "Dad, where is my sweet potato?"
Sweet potato leaves, because he wants to live adventures
The last option (perhaps there is more, but I do not give much) that occurred to us, was that of end the sweet potato so that they will accept it. You know that I do not like to lie to children with characters that do not exist, but in this case the character, Boniato Jones, already existed, and in his imagination he also had life, because otherwise I do not explain how they defended him so much the night we were about to throw it away, so all I did was give it even more life, turning a sad sweet potato with Nespresso capsule shoes and felt clothes hooked with thumbtacks in Sweet potato Jones, the adventurous sweet potato.
I told them to say goodbye to him, that night he was going to leave because he wanted to live adventures. I also told them to take the opportunity to teach him some tricks, since the only thing he took with him was a duffel bag and a Playmobil sword and whip. The two began to explain how to defend themselves (ninja tricks, I think) and how to attack in case they had problems. That same night, the Sweet Potato left home (well, I put it in a closet, in case the flies).
A few days later a photo arrived with a text behind it. Sweet potato Jones was in Paris (The photo that heads the entry is the sample). It had taken a while to write because, you know, sweet potatoes have no legs. He told them that he had climbed the Eiffel tower, that Paris is beautiful, that there people speak in French and that it is very difficult to understand them and he sent many kisses.
The next photo came from Eurodisney. Taking advantage of the fact that he was there, he went to see Mickey, and explained that he had a great time. As they have already been there, they were able to smile complicitly with the sweet potato stories.
Then he sent another one (they always arrived at the home mailbox) explaining that he had found a hole through the streets of Paris and that he had reached a crypt, where he had to make use of the lessons of defense, with the whip and the sword, because there was He found numerous rats and other animals that wanted to attack him. Next, an image of Sweet Potato in the crypt:
For the next it took a while to send a letter, but he had an explanation: he had been traveling until he arrived in Egypt, where he could fulfill his dream of be like Indiana Jones and explore the pyramids and know the Egyptian writing.
Then Christmas arrived and Sweet potato Jones, a few days after the 25th, sent a new letter explaining that he had been in Lapland with Santa Claus, preparing the gifts and knowing the elves (here I freaked out a bit, because they don't think about Santa Claus, basically because we don't feed him at home).
A few days later, taking advantage that Jon and I had gone to see "The Hobbit," Sweet potato Jones sent a letter recommending the film, if we had not seen it, because he had gone to see her dressed in a Gandalf hat.
Finally, a few days ago, when they were barely asking for him because they assumed he was living great adventures, Boniato Jones sent one last letter in which he said goodbye to them. I had met a sweet potato elf (the princess thing did not make me very cool), he had fallen in love, and they had decided to start a life of adventures together (I found on the internet a photo of Mrs. Sweet potato and I took it).
They met in New York and as sweet potatoes, seeing that in our world there were many dangers, they decided to travel to the country of sweet potatoes. A distant country to live with other sweet potatoes and a country that really wanted to discover, because they had never been in it. The only problem is that there it is very difficult to write and send letters, and in a way they were going to lose some contact. He told them that if one day he returned from there he would write to them again, because for him they were very important children and he urged them to create new sweet potatoes this year, in October, with which to live new stories.
Kafka and the traveling doll
The idea of doing this came from the idea that Kafka once had when she met a girl in a park, crying for losing her wrist. He thought about telling him that sometimes it happens, that the dolls are lost, that deep down they are nothing more than a piece of rag and that life is much more than that. However, at that moment, it seemed to him that it was easier for the girl to understand and manage emotionally that her doll had gone on a trip than knowing the truth, and invented for her various letters that he wrote himself and that he read every morning.
This story is collected in the book "Kafka and the traveling doll", which I read a few years ago and I loved it. I am very much about inventing stories and situations, characters and adventures ... another day I tell you more so you can see how far I get to make my children go fairly happy to school. As the idea for the sweet potato conflict really came (later I adapted it) from Kafka, I wanted to explain it in case, in addition, you want to read the aforementioned book, which is still a children's book, but is full of magic.
