Mean Mother Moment
Way back when I was a small child . . . possibly around the age of 8 or 9, my mother had a "Mean Mother Moment." I was sent to bed without dinner! Can you believe that?! When I was 8 or 9, I thought she was the meanest mother ever!!! As an adult, and a parent myself, I totally had it coming to me. I was being a TOTAL brat! In defense of my 8 or 9 year old self, she made stir fry. I HATED stir fry. I could not stand those snow peas. They totally grossed me out! As an adult- stir fry is delicious and I LOVE snow peas now. So . . . there you have it 8 or 9 year old self, you were wrong, Mom was right. As I was tonight, when I had my Mean Mother Moment, but . . . being right doesn't feel nice.
Alexa experienced the brunt of my Mean Mother Moment tonight. She didn't get dinner. Now, in my defense, I didn't try to feed her some crazy meal of stir fry. I fixed her: chicken tenders (these were homemade ones), green beans (they were the kind she likes: No Salt, from a can), and rice. Clearly this meal was child friendly. Specifically . . . Alexa friendly.
I have been in a bit of a dinner rut . . . for the last year. I hate fixing dinner. I despise it. I have one who can't eat anything with gluten, one who only likes 3 kinds of vegetables, and one who pretty much doesn't like anything. It's a total drag cooking for my family. Yesterday, when I went to the grocery store I bought: meat, plain veggies, and rice because that's what everyone agrees on. It's soooo boring!!!! But whatever. They're happy. I actually managed to get them to eat a veggie. And it wasn't labor intensive. yeah.
So back to tonight. Alexa sat down to eat, and she wanted to know why the rice tasted different (truth be told . . . I didn't have butter to put in it tonight), then she wanted to know why there was salt on her green beans (there wasn't, I buy No Salt Added green beans!). She hadn't even tried the tenders, so when she said, "I don't know why I even have to eat this yucky dinner!" I totally lost my head. I said, "No worries!" I leaped up, grabbed her plate, and threw the entire thing in the trash. Then I said (calmly- for real), "Please go upstairs to your room, when I have finished my dinner, I will come get you and we'll go for our walk." Wouldn't you know . . . she went upstairs without crying, hung out in her room until I said I was ready to go for a walk. Then as we were walking, she still wanted to hold my hand.
Oh my Lord! She slayed me. I wanted to run home and let her eat ice cream for dinner. I didn't. Instead, we went home and I let her take a bath in my bathtub (it's a garden tub and she LOVES to sit in there). As I was getting her out of the tub, she said, "I wish I would have eaten my dinner. I'm hungry now." I said, "Yeah, I bet you are. I'm sorry. You should have eaten dinner when I served it, without complaining. But, let me ask you, how do you think it makes me feel, when you complain about dinner? It hurts my feelings, that something I fixed for you to eat, and you said ugly things." Then I read her a story, and put her to bed.
I've been to check on her twice and kissed her sweet, sleeping head because I feel terrible. Parenting is tough stuff y'all.
Alexa experienced the brunt of my Mean Mother Moment tonight. She didn't get dinner. Now, in my defense, I didn't try to feed her some crazy meal of stir fry. I fixed her: chicken tenders (these were homemade ones), green beans (they were the kind she likes: No Salt, from a can), and rice. Clearly this meal was child friendly. Specifically . . . Alexa friendly.
I have been in a bit of a dinner rut . . . for the last year. I hate fixing dinner. I despise it. I have one who can't eat anything with gluten, one who only likes 3 kinds of vegetables, and one who pretty much doesn't like anything. It's a total drag cooking for my family. Yesterday, when I went to the grocery store I bought: meat, plain veggies, and rice because that's what everyone agrees on. It's soooo boring!!!! But whatever. They're happy. I actually managed to get them to eat a veggie. And it wasn't labor intensive. yeah.
So back to tonight. Alexa sat down to eat, and she wanted to know why the rice tasted different (truth be told . . . I didn't have butter to put in it tonight), then she wanted to know why there was salt on her green beans (there wasn't, I buy No Salt Added green beans!). She hadn't even tried the tenders, so when she said, "I don't know why I even have to eat this yucky dinner!" I totally lost my head. I said, "No worries!" I leaped up, grabbed her plate, and threw the entire thing in the trash. Then I said (calmly- for real), "Please go upstairs to your room, when I have finished my dinner, I will come get you and we'll go for our walk." Wouldn't you know . . . she went upstairs without crying, hung out in her room until I said I was ready to go for a walk. Then as we were walking, she still wanted to hold my hand.
Oh my Lord! She slayed me. I wanted to run home and let her eat ice cream for dinner. I didn't. Instead, we went home and I let her take a bath in my bathtub (it's a garden tub and she LOVES to sit in there). As I was getting her out of the tub, she said, "I wish I would have eaten my dinner. I'm hungry now." I said, "Yeah, I bet you are. I'm sorry. You should have eaten dinner when I served it, without complaining. But, let me ask you, how do you think it makes me feel, when you complain about dinner? It hurts my feelings, that something I fixed for you to eat, and you said ugly things." Then I read her a story, and put her to bed.
I've been to check on her twice and kissed her sweet, sleeping head because I feel terrible. Parenting is tough stuff y'all.
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