hen my kids were
younger, I was
vigilant about how
they ate. I made much of what my older son consumed. I pureed organic fruits and vegetables, froze them in ice cube trays, and bought no-sugar organic puffs for snacks, little juice, and other sweets.
My, how the tables have turned. I try to think how it happened.
Like how a river can wear down a stone wall, so have I been worn down after more than a decade of parenthood. Pumpkin and zucchini muffins have been replaced with Donut Friday. They get Oreos in their lunches instead of homemade cookies. My purse contains mini bags of pre-packaged cheese crackers, “fruit” snacks, and granola bars.
How did this happen?
I figured out the answer: Life happened.
W
We didn’t have a lot of junk food around our house when I was a kid. Occasionally we’d have pop (saved for outings on our small fishing boat, not for everyday drinking). Mom included what she called ‘a crunchy’ in the lunches she made for us (usually a small bag of pretzels or chips). The highlight was, of course, dessert. A Little Debbie Star Crunch, Nutty Bar, Cosmic Brownie, or Oatmeal sandwich cookie was the perfect finish she included in our daily brown bags.
My best friend Maria always had a Whatchamacallit candy bar in her lunch, a treat I could barely imagine having once a month, nonetheless, daily. Her mom also wrote her notes using her nickname ‘Boo Boo,’ a pseudonym that has endured.
I’m thinking a lot about this because summer is the time of treats. Before I had children, it never occurred to me that I might consider it perfectly fine to go out for ice cream at 6 pm and call it dinner. Or that my kids would love Happy Hour dinner (an assortment of cheeses, meat, and crackers) served in front of the TV somewhere around 5. We even serve mocktails (juice and sparkling water) and cocktails (of various sorts).
These unorthodox ‘meals’ happen more frequently in the summer, and I’m OK with it. I stick to a reasonable plan during the school year: Healthy meals with primarily homemade food, eaten together as often as possible.
But in summer, the rules are different.