I saw an article shared on Facebook and was going to leave a long comment but you know how people are so judgmental on Facebook so, here was my response that I later decided not to share in its entirety:
I with held soda from my children until it became a problem. Ironic, huh? My oldest, then a middle schooler (7th or 8th) would come home and tell me how his school mates would make fun of him and say bad things about me because I wouldn't allow my children to drink soda. Up until then it had been on occasion, at restaurants, mostly - and even then they mostly chose the caffeine free sodas. I eventually wound up purchasing 2 2ltr bottles every 2 weeks and told my 3 kids they could only have a 1/2 cup a day until it runs out then - that's it until I buy more. That got to be a pain. I eventually bought a soda stream (which we all LOVE) and still drinking soda is more of a privilege but one I'm less conservative on now-a-days. However, I lost the battle with the coffee. And, whereas my oldest didn't get soda until middle school, my youngest had the opportunity to drink it more regularly when I 'gave in.' And, what the older kids get, the younger kid wants. So, my youngest began begging for coffee - which prompted my 'coffee rules.' They are only allowed 1 tsp of sugar and 1 creamer. I buy the little liquid packets because they could never eyeball the measurement by pouring liquid creamer into their cups from the big bottles. My youngest can have, at most, two cups of coffee a day. The older boys are old enough and responsible enough that I don't watch them with their coffee consumption but will admit that on weekends we can consume (all of us) up to 3 pots - Pots!- of coffee.
Maybe not my most shining admission as a parent but some battles are not worth fighting. There are definitely bigger fish to fry.
No comments:
Post a Comment