They just opened a brand new McDonalds near our house, and it's pretty nice! It has a little bit of an upscale feel compared to other venues we've visited, and I was starting to get a little lax in my 'fast food is a necessary evil' mentality. Instead of once in a blue moon, between Ty and I we ran through that kid food haven three or four times in a two week period. On Saturday I took Maddie to get her ears pierced, but then we were late for another thing, so I hurried down an extra exit on the freeway to go home via the McDonald's drive through. $4 later I had enough food to satisfy two and half kid's need for lunch, plus a guaranteed "on time" stamp for my itinerary.
Right after I patted myself on the back for being such a savvy Mom, Annie pulled a sliver of sharp metal out of her mouth. Train derailed. It was long and pointy on both ends, like a giant finger nail clipping made of aluminum. I spent about 10 seconds imagining what that would have done to her intestinal track before I threw away the rest of her hamburger and realized that eating at home is pretty savvy too.
As busy as life gets, it's so hard to figure out kid food sometimes. I know, I know, you have to just let them eat what you're eating whether they like it or not. That philosophy earns me a lot of whining, and I get that in my day naturally, so... It's much more satisfying to have taco night (again) and clear empty plates instead of dumping a bunch of more elevated food into the garbage. Then I always end up playing room service at bedtime when everyone wants crackers, and for the love, I just have to have this day over right. now. But really, I can only eat so many tacos.
Is it so bad that I wanted a brief window of food related peace? It's not like it's going to kill them to eat junk every now and again (assuming there is no metal in the hamburger). I am grateful for the reality check, however, when it comes to food. It reminded me that no one is going to prepare a healthy and additive/metal free meal for my family except me. It's the annoying truth.
I also realize that we live in a world with a lot of flashy food products that my kids see every day in advertising and on the school lunch table. I can't just pretend that isn't happening. We can make a lot of good choices about food, but we can't eliminate the junk. I hear all the time about "poor so and so" at lunch. Her Mom only gives her carrots and a sandwich for lunch, so the kids feel bad and share treats with her. Yeah, sorry health mom. The birthday train is also ongoing at school, so good luck avoiding the processed sugar.
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I guess I will keep working on the food problem. For St. Patrick's Day we made fruit rainbows. I felt pretty good about that. We also made lime sherbet floats, and then made them again and again for like four days. Whatevs. They keep needing to eat... and we repeat the process of figuring out what to serve.
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