Goldilocks

What if it has pesticides? I will buy organic next. What if it has GMO? I will make sure to buy GMO free next time. What if someone dropped the grains on the floor? What if the boiling of the water doesn’t kill all the germs in the water? I will have to wash them at least 3 times after I boil them to kill all the germs. This is what Mama bear mind sounded like when she tried to make the porridge for dad and baby bear.

Mama bear had been abandoned in the forest by her own mama bear. She was lucky to survive by being able to join a different herd of bears who welcomed her into their bear family. Most other bears saw her as the strong one, she was referred to as the survivor. However, in this new flock of bears, there was an aggressive big black bear that used to be aggressive towards her and shout at her a lot while she was growing up. In order to cope growing up it gave her sense of control to be able to keep everything extremely clean around her. However, after the baby bear was born things got out of hand. The sheer responsibility of keeping the baby bear safe and well fed exacerbated her stress. The rituals involved intense cleaning and screening of everything that the baby bear ate. She would repeatedly wash all utensils with soap, disinfectant and then thoroughly rinse off all traces of these substances. This meant that each spoon, dish and fork too would take 1.5 hours to get ready and at this stage she hadn't even started making the porridge.

Her husband was a soft and warm supportive bear. He would see the distress she was in, and would suggest things like, why don’t we put on relaxing music. This afternoon, daddy bear had suggested the bears would go for a walk for mama bear to calm her mind. However, she would also struggle when they would come back, since everyone had to wash all paws with soap and dry before entering the house.

Meanwhile at the house. Goldilocks, a girl from a local farm had found the bear house. Goldilocks father was known in the area for his productiveness, and Goldilocks herself needed a walk to clear her mind from her demanding father.

She had entered the premises with dirty feet and hands. She had spread germs onto all 3 spoons, sat and spread germs on all the seats and to make matters worse she had laid down in each of the family members beds. Mama bear had a ritual around going to bed, she would hand wash the sheets every day, and everyone had to shower with soap and put coconut oil on the fur before bedtime. Goldilock lying there in her dirty clothes from outside was mama bear’s worst nightmare!

When the family came back it was already late and everyone was hungry. Baby bear was crying, so the mama bear had no choice but to feed the baby bear the contaminated porridge, and the baby bear calmed down despite sitting on the dirty chair. Then the baby bear cried that he wanted to go to bed, and once again mama bear had allowed the baby bear to lay down without any cleaning in his bed and the baby bear slept through the night for the first time in his life. Mama bear realized that rituals were working against her most desired goal of being a good mother, so she decided to set up a plan to reduce her rituals and spend more time going for walks and enjoy quality time with her baby bear.