Which leads me to a completely disjointed, but must be shared anecdote: Yesterday afternoon Monkeybutt had book club at 4:30, I had to go pick my mom up from work at 5 then back to book club to get Monkeybutt at 5:30 and on to baseball practice by 6:30, which gave us a short time to stop off and get something for dinner. We chose Arby's, which admittedly was not the healthiest choice, but I thought I was craving it. I was wrong. But, anyway, we ordered our food from the frazzled boy at the register who needed a great deal of help because it was a brand new system. The manager guy came to help him out and everytime he completed a function for the boy he said, "Merry Christmas." It became seriously annoying. When he walked away I asked the boy if he always said that. He said, "Yeah, that and 'good times'." Well the boy had trouble cashing us out and called manager guy back to help; he completed the task, said "Merry Christmas", the boy thanked him and he responded with - oh yeah, you guessed it, "good times." This next comment is completely mean and judgemental but, holy crud, what a dork! But, entertainment for Missy.
My friend Erika sent me a link to a website yesterday called Momfidence! I was thrilled when I followed the link and found it was for a writer named Paula Spencer, who writes my favorite column and only reason I read Woman's Day magazine. She's this mom of 4 kids, she's completely down to earth and all about chilling out and truly enjoying your kids. Obviously they're not always so enjoyable, but I just mean - stop freaking out about parenting and enjoy what you can. They're not kids forever.
To illustrate my point: I recently joined a group of rather "crunchy" women here in my area. They are all about the attachment parenting, diaper-free baby, breast-feed ONLY, etc. Nothing wrong with all of this, my friends who are into these things. But there are so many other things to worry about as our children grow up, a little added sugar on occasion is not going to destroy them. One of the woman, a very nice woman, is fanatical about her daughter's diet. She is not to eat birthday cake, fruit snacks, and especially, the root of all evil...juiceboxes. Her daughter is very aware of these rules, and, apparently, will turn said items down if offered with a, "no thank you. My mother doesn't allow me to have added sugar in my diet." This story got me to thinking how much I adore the juicebox. And I don't buy the 100% juice ones either - I am particularly fond of Capri Suns. When I was a kid, the Capri Sun was a special treat...something to be savored. Now I try to keep them on hand. They have Vitamin C, for goodness sake. And it's fabulous to be able to grab one out and hand it to my kid as we're walking out the door instead of filling a bottle or something. And if said kid wants something to drink and I don't feel like getting up, I can say, "grab a juicebox." I would like to meet the inventor of the juicebox and shake his/her hand and tell them how fabulous they are. A whole box of convenience and fun for $2. What a bargain.
I will post the website I like so much in my links. I would highly recommend, if you are a mom like me and a little less than worried about a little added sugar, a scraped knee, or television, checking Paula Spencer out. She's funny, insightful, and she'll make you feel a little better the next time the mom next to you says, "oh, my son is not allowed to watch "Star Wars" or play with toy swords. Too much violence." Well guess what, honey. Your kid is beating on that other kid with a stick and taught my kid several different swear words even I didn't know.
Children are little heathens - we can only keep watch, give them the occasional Oreo, and hope they don't end up serial killers.
1 comment:
I'm with you - a few people can go a bit overboard. I'm in an online class right now where one person doesn't own a tv. That was a shocker to me. I admire her since there are many times I'd love to throw mine out the window. But I'd miss football WAY too much! Enjoy the juiceboxes!!
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