Breakfast: It's What's For Dinner!

How many moms out there feel like they are running a restaurant? Oooo, I see EVERYONE is raising their hands (yes, I can see you, the miracle of the internet!)

Last night Fitfreak and I had a conversation about dinner. What prompted this was the fact that I had had the stomach bug and was still pretty tired and just not mentally prepared to deal with the evening meal. I had asked my husband (via phone) if he thought it would be all right if I just ordered a pizza to be delivered for them. His response:

(LOOOOOOONNNNNGGG PAUSE) "Uh, okay".

Clearly it was not okay, and when I asked him why the hesitation he said "Well, didn't they just have Burger King on Friday?"

Granted, I don't want my kids eating fast food day after day. But for the love of God, I was sidelined with the stomach bug (to be fair, no puking, just chills, headache, stomach ache, nausea, body aches and exhaustion). I know it may not seem like much, but making dinner for my family is a HUGE venture. Why?

One child likes rice but doesn't like potatoes. The other likes potatoes but doesn't like rice. My husband has SEVERE FOOD ALLERGIES. And I am trying to lose weight. My kids like roasted chicken but not chicken breasts made on the grill or any other way. My older son likes spaghetti, nachos, tacos, sausage soup, steak and hamburgers. THAT'S IT! My younger son is more adventurous. He will try a variety of foods. Plus, my husband doesn't get home till almost the children's bedtime. Do you see where I'm going with this?

Some nights I'm tempted to just give them a PB&J and be done with it (though the younger one needs it without the "J". AAARRGGGH!) But then a friend's voice comes back to haunt me: "You need to give your kids a hot meal every night!"

And that's where Breakfast comes in! Nothing better for dinner than fryin' up some bacon and making pancakes. It's hot! It's fresh. Everyone will eat it (okay, I won't but I can always have a salad!) and it also has NO NUTRITIONAL VALUE WHATSOEVER!

Personally, I think the pizza would have been better.

Free Range Kids

Have you heard this story yet?  A mom from NY City allowed her 9 year old son to take the subway home from a department store in the Upper East Side to Manhattan, by himself.  She calls it.."free range kids" and insists that she did nothing to put him in danger and was allowing her son to use his independence and skills of maturity.  Huh.  She also insists that we, as a society, are far too overprotective of our children.  Huh, again.  This got me thinking.  Am I too overprotective of my three children?  Well, maybe a bit.  I don't allow them to walk on busy streets alone, they are not allowed to have friends in the house if I am not here, they accompany me and stay with me inside stores, and I insist my husband take my boys to the mens room so they don't meet some sicko molester in the Wal-Mart men's bathroom.  

On the other hand, I allow my 9 year old son to run to his friend's house in the neighborhood (ditto with the other kids), he has an air soft pellet gun, he has a electric motorcycle that goes 7 MPH, my daughter can stay home for short periods of time while I run an errand or drop a sibling off at a play date, my youngest (who has Asperger's Syndrome) is allowed to walk to the mailbox by himself (around the corner and out of my view) and also to the neighbor's to play. They sometimes sit in the car while I run into a store to purchase bread or milk (all three are in the car at once...safety in numbers?).  I've drilled them all on what to do if approached by someone they don't know..... screaming, clawing, kicking, biting...my daughter has a cell phone so I can keep tabs on her.  But is this all TOO PROTECTIVE?

I was reminiscing about my youth.  I grew up in a large family, I was #5 out of 6 kids.  We lived in a small seaside community and had neighbors who also had large families.  We would run through the neighborhood (we did live on a pretty busy street, but had a nice side street that was less traveled and perfect for hide and seek, bike riding etc.).  We would spend hours and hours outside and I rarely remember my mother scanning the hood looking for us.  She was too busy keeping house for 8 people.  The laundry alone!  Yikes!  

One evening during my bookclub, we had a remember when you were a kid and your parents let you did________.  I am proud to say that I won that little contest.  How?  Well, my sweet and well meaning mother would drop myself and my older and younger brother off at the local beach.  I think we were ages 11, 9, and 7 respectively.  We had a giant inner tube from the local truck garage.  We would get on that inner tube and FLOAT DOWN THE BEACH for OVER A MILE to the next beach and there would be mom, ready to pick us up!!!!  I am NOT JOKING...although she seems to have forgotten this and claims it untrue.  Never mind we could have been sucked out in to the Atlantic and never seen again....or who knows what else.  The book club girls were aghast!  We also heard stories of walking 10 or 15 minutes to the local store to pick up a pack of cigarettes for mom or candy to fill our guts.  Guilty on that one too!  I have to laugh when I think of these stories....because you would EVER let your kids buy you a pack of butts or drop them off at the beach to float to another beach or walk to the local store to buy candy and chips?    Hah!  Yeah, right!  

Maybe we are too overprotective....but I can assure you, my 9 year old will NOT be taking the subway any time soon.