My Mothers Day started with a three a.m. bike ride, and it was Son Two’s idea.
He’s just been hired to work part-time this summer at Holly B’s Bakery (“Holly’s Buns Are Best”) where I’ve been working for the past five years. He’ll mostly be working the counter and, later on during high season, baking at night. But this Mothers Day, a slot came open for assistant morning-baking. Son Two filled it.
“Can we ride in?” he asked. Now, I know your average almost 23 year-old is not his/her best self at 3 a.m., even when pulling some kind of all-nighter. Asking one to wake up then, bundle up and bike 11 miles in the dark, well…I wouldn’t have asked. But since he offered? Hell yeah! Let’s ride!
Son Two’s reward: getting to spend the next nine hours having his Head Baker mom tell him what to do. He did fantastic.
Making croissant dough: roll, butter, fold, chill, repeat.
He messed up not once (which is more than I can say for my first disastrous pan of brownies assistant baking shift). He made beautiful food. And on our ride home, he told me he appreciated my showing him how to do things right.
Young Man With Macaroons
Breakfast in bed is great. So is going out for brunch. But my best Mothers Day present EVER is the realization that my younger son is someone I would hire or sign up to work with, even if I’d never met the kid. I mean man.
Like mother, like son? I should be so lucky.
Mothers Day stories, anyone? I love hearing from you!
Wing's World 
It sounds like you have a wonderful, fun job! I’m glad your son got to join in on it with you! Does he have any technical baking experience? I always hope to work in a bakery, but it always feels like formal training is needed. ❤
Alyssa, I love my job so much I joke with my boss that I should be paying HER. I had a lot of personal baking experience when I started, but really the only “skill” that transferred from personal to professional baker was the ability to trust my instincts. The things I bake at work are very different from what I generally bake at home. Similarly, my son’s gotten into baking sourdough bread, but not much else. I can’t speak for other bakeries, but this one is very much about the on-the-job training, and it seems to work! I wouldn’t be surprised if lots of bakeries worked that way.
Thanks for visiting Wing’s World, and thanks even more for following! To paraphrase “the most interesting man in the world,” I don’t always blog about food, but when I do, I blog about the larger meaning of food, and I hope you enjoy it! 🙂