斗牛棋牌

My childhood friends, many of whom I’m still friends with today, grew up affectionately calling my father “Papa Shim.” In my household, my parents’ roles are flipped: My mom is the breadwinner, while my dad stays at home. It was like that ever since I was born, and naturally, I spent a lot of time with my dad growing up since he was the one who took care of me during the day. He’s notorious for his close care over my diet, sleep schedule and study habits. My friends noticed this and claimed he “laid me as an egg” and hatched me to make me the best bird ever. Ever since then, he’s been known as “Papa Shim.”

Papa Shim tells me from time to time that he really did try his best to raise me, especially since I spent the most time with him out of my siblings. Besides him forcing me to start studying for the SAT in middle school and making me do advanced math outside of class, he heavily restricted processed foods growing up, insisting on a whole foods, plant-based diet. His arch-enemies were processed sugar, GMOs, beef (the mad cow scare of the 90s really did a doozy on him) and all microwaves (something about how they cause chemicals to leach into your food?). 

While some might refer to his behavior as “almond dad-like,” he wasn’t particularly concerned about calories—just sugar and chemicals. He substituted many things he found unhealthy with better alternatives: brown rice for white, turbinado brown sugar for white, whole grain bread for white (basically, anything that was white and processed was thrown out for its browner, more squirrel food-looking alternative). Even though he rejected most brand-name food items, he always made sure I ate a lot and never let me go hungry. Almost all American food was unpalatable to him and too fattening, so he opted to make traditional Korean food for most dinners. His favorite line was telling me to eat more of his blanched bean sprouts so that I would “grow as tall as them.” 

I didn’t initially resent him growing up for the healthy, all-natural diet he insisted on, but I did start to wonder if I was missing out on all the fun snacks my friends always had for lunch once I started school. While I would have my little all-natural brown sugar, seed oil-free, non-GMO Nature’s Path Panda Puffs, my classmates would have the cool Scooby-Doo fruit snacks and Goldfish. Sometimes I envied how bright their lunchboxes were. I went through that phase of feeling ashamed about my lunches, not because of the usual “ew your cultural food is stinky,” but because I didn’t have those radioactive-looking snacks or Lunchables. 

Recently, I saw a TikTok about how our parents are living their lives for the first time with us, and that most of them are just trying their best to raise us. It reminded me that my dad was navigating my childhood with me. I look back fondly on my time growing up with him and thank him for his protectiveness, especially once I learned that type 2 diabetes runs in my family. I realized that all the times he made me go on a walk with him as our exercise were probably moments when he didn’t want to feel lonely. 

Papa Shim has since relaxed on his dietary restrictions. He now occasionally indulges in a well-done, 100% grass-fed steak, and he’ll pop open a can of Diet Coke every once in a while. He tells me to treat myself to fast food if I’m hungry in the dorm and says it’s OK to eat meat as long as I’m eating veggies, too. The last time I spoke to him on the phone, he stated that he feels bad looking back for being so restrictive and hoped I understood that he just wanted to make sure I grew up healthy. I told him I didn’t mind it anymore and that I adopted a lot of principles he taught me. I actually choose, on my own, not to eat processed sugar often, and I try to stay away from meat if I have other alternatives. I opt for water instead of soda, and I make sure to get my steps in every day. Despite his funky food paranoia growing up and conspiracy theorist tendencies, I’d say he did a pretty good job at “hatching” me.