[Parenting Essay] The Glico Secret I Kept from My Eldest Son — What I Was Secretly Doing During Our Morning Rock-Paper-Scissors

Hello, I'm Kiipikumin.

I am a father raising three children. I have an eldest son and twin daughters.
The twins were born prematurely last year and were hospitalized in the NICU.

Currently, I am on childcare leave and living a life centered around raising my children with my wife.

My four-year-old eldest son is obsessed with Glico.

Not the candy, but that game where you advance by playing rock-paper-scissors.

Rock is Glico.
Scissors is Chocolate.
Paper is Pineapple.

It has become our daily routine to play it every time I drop him off at nursery school.

Even on days when he doesn't want to go to nursery school,
if I say, "Let's play Glico," he will head out the door without a fuss.

I don't know how many times this game has saved me.


The matches are usually close.

In the end, it wouldn't be strange for either of us to reach the house first.
Whoever wins this rock-paper-scissors game gets to reach the house first.
That's the kind of match it is.

When the match is close, my eldest son gets a serious look on his face.
He has an expression as if this rock-paper-scissors game is the most important thing in the world.

That is unbearably cute.

My eldest son thinks the reason these matches are close is
due to the length of my stride.

He thinks, "Dad has a long stride, so he catches up quickly."
That's why it's a close match, he believes.

He tries to imitate how I walk,
tries to make his hand movements bigger,
and tries to come up with ways to widen his stride.


But my son, it's a little different.

He doesn't realize it himself, but
my eldest son has a habit when playing rock-paper-scissors.

Almost every time, he starts by throwing paper.

And the more important the match is, the more he throws paper.

So, I mix in rock and scissors appropriately.
Trying not to win too much, and not to lose too much.

That is how I adjust it so that it becomes a close match.
Just so I can see that expression on my eldest son's face.

That kind of Glico is a lot of fun.

Glico, where I can see my eldest son's cute side, is
one of the bonus times of parenting for me.

However, my eldest son will surely realize it someday.
That he is throwing paper a lot.

He might even stop playing Glico altogether.
That time is surely not far off.

That is exactly why I want to
enjoy this limited-time bonus period to the fullest.


……or so I thought.

But, a few days after I wrote the draft for this article,
my eldest son realized that he was throwing paper a lot,
and started mixing in rock.

Thank you for reading until the end. I also keep records of our life in the NICU and our daily childcare life.

If you'd like, please take a look at my other articles as well.