Thursday, February 28, 2008

Food Fight

As far as letting go, being calmer, enjoying ice cream, finding mamahood blissful ---well, I'm a total fraud today. Totally lost it. Full fledge tantrum. Even squealed the tires on my minivan! in front of the new dad in the neighborhood. Pathetic. Why? School lunch. Making my kids lunches is by far the crappiest morning task I have. Trust me, I've tried to do it at night and it stinks then, too. It's not the task-- it's the contents and what my kids will/will not eat. They pretty much will not eat anything. They will eat most things at other meal times but not in a lunchbox for some reason I can not fathom. For example--




bananas? no. apples? no. with cinnamon? nope. cantaloupe? no. strawberries? not a chance. I'll add sugar. no.blueberries? no. dried ones? no. raisins? no. cashews? no. almonds? no. pistachios? no.mini bagel. no. with cream cheese? no. multi-grain crackers? no (they apparently break). cold cheese pizza? no. So I bought thermoses and offered hot foods---mac n cheese? no. soup? no. spaghetti? no. PB and crackers? no. (the peanut butter sticks to the bag). So Eric bought containers. How dare he, apparently that is so not cool! cheese sticks? no. cheese slices. no. yogurt? no. So then I resort to much less healthy food but can you see why I'm desperate? gogurts? no way, says Liv. Audrey has one daily, thank God. fiber one chocolate chip bar? no. fruit leather? no. (makes their hands sticky). peanut butter filled pretzels? no. chocolate covered raisins? no.




They will eat carrots, grapes, rice cakes, and some crackers--Liv won't eat goldfish but she will eat saltines--nice and healthy, 'eh? Here's a handful of white flour and salt basically. On top of all this I have to send Olivia to school with a mid-a.m. snack AND a snack for the afternoon on the days she has piano or cheerleading practice. So, back to this a.m. I was making lunch and every request was rejected. Oh, one more tangent--I KNOW not to give them choices when they are so picky because they will decline everything and the rational thinking is--if they're hungry, they'll eat SO I have sent them to school with what I want them to eat and then it all comes home. brown apples. warm cheese stick. soggy strawberries. And I can't stand the waste. So I lecture and remind them of starving children and how unfair it is that mama and papa work to provide for them and they let the food we buy rot in their lunch box. I know how awful my lecturing is too, trust me. And I know that at the end of the day I should probably let this whole school lunch issue go. But today I simply couldn't. Anyway, back to making lunch this a.m.--that was how my tantrum started. Then my computer jammed as I was printing something for a 10 a.m. mtg. And you can believe--it's a very bad hair day. So the kids are finally loaded into the car and Audrey does not have her lunchbox. Not that it matters. Would her body really miss a gogurt and a PB chip rice cake anyway? So I start to lecture about personal responsibility and send Olivia inside to find her sister's lunchbox that I set on the counter. And the clock is ticking. She could not find it. And the minutes are passing. Now mama is on the war path. I got out of the car SLAMMING the door behind me and I could not find it either. Not in my office, my bathroom, their bathroom, downstairs bathroom, not in either kids bedrooms, neither dog had brought it onto their respectives posts. Nowhere. I returned to the car. Not in Liv's backpack either. And there it was. It had fallen next to Audrey's seat on the side of the car. And now I was 10 minutes behind schedule. And I am usually 10 minutes behind "that" schedule so I'm now about 20 minutes late for everything...So I turn on the radio and blast the volume to 48 (another quick tangent--48 is nothing on my earlier, crazier mama tantrum days when both kids were babes--62 was my all time high and Eric bought me a shirt and had it embroidered to prove it--something I am so not proud of-- believe me). So back to the radio--Coldplay was on and droning, "Nobody said it was easy". I could not change it fast enough. Sheryl Crow's voice is now blaring in the car as she crooned, "Soak Up the Sun" and the lyrics are, "It's not having what you want, it's wanting what you have". And then that still small voice appears. Conscience? God? Telepathy from my kids? Turn it down, switch the station, and chill the heck out. And I did. I didn't want to. But I did. And thankfully for Liv we'd arrived at her school. Audrey got to ride the next few minutes listening to Radio Disney as she does most days. Upon arrival she spells I L-O-V-E Y-O-U and then she adds, "You're all of my dreams come true." Is this kid going to need therapy or what? So I turn the car off and hug her and tell her how wrong I was. I told her I had a tantrum over school lunch. And then I was mad that we couldn't find her lunch box so I was now upset over losing something silly. I told her how wrong that was and how I tell them not to get upset over clothes, hair, and things that can be fixed and found. But that I went and did it. I asked her how it felt when I acted like that and she said, "you're like a monster." ouch. She's right. So that "you're my dream come true" was more like a nightmare for sure. But she did not say it. She didn't have to. Bless her. But I know. "Mom, you need to talk to yourself and talk to God. It helps. He can send messages to calm you," she says. Good luck getting my attention. I then took her to class and spelled to the teacher that I was a real B-I-T-C-H this morning and so Audrey girl may feel the after effects. She nodded and assured me that this too shall pass. And then I was off. Turning the key in the ignition the radio comes on and The Wiggles greet me with "Fruit Salad. Yummy, Yummy". Are you kidding me? God apparently does have a sense of humor.









p.s. Got a new biz call last week from a company starting "healthy, fun lunch packages for kids" (kid tested/mom approved)! And they're delivered right to school and camp- no muss, no fuss. Was I interested in helping them with their public relations? YES, YES, YES. I may be willing to take compensation in trade I am so interested! Is that another sign?

7 comments:

McJuicemom said...

I wondered about the long hug with Audrey this am :-) Making lunch is definitely not the funnest chore. I make the menu for the whole week on Fridays, shop on Sundays and make what I wrote each day. Not many choices are given "you will get fruit, do you want this, this or that?" I do have to resort to baking mini corn dogs and chicken nuggets and noodle soup (aka top ramen) in the morning. I also stoop and make fluffer nutters (peanut butter and marchmallow cream) on mini bagels. Once a while, I give them over-priced and non nutritional luncheables. Julian is a bit easier - danimals daily is his staple. He doesn't mind ham and cheese sandwiches as long as there's no crust and they are cut in small squares. Mac would eat taco salad as much as possible and I make sure that we have leftover chicken teriyaki so that I can put warmed leftovers in lunches in thermoses the next day. And as much as I hate them, I give in to school lunches a couple of times each week.
I've heard some people have had succes putting out a small variety of choices and have the kids make their own lunches and letting them put stuff in the lunch boxes - most food got eaten. I don;t have that kind of time, but may be a solution!
Hang in there. Soon they will be old enough to make their own lunches for good.

Kiwi said...

K-

Just know I am WAY worse than you with the meltdowns (mine, that is). I was laughing reading your lunchbox saga as it reminded me of the morning I left both kids in the car - in the freezing cold - while I tore the house apart looking for my cell phone. Max had gotten ahold of it and it was missing...I heard it ring so knew it was SOMEWHERE...I spent nearly 20 minutes searching, to no avail. I was in such a state - HA! I kept trying to tell myself, "Kira, what are you DOING?!? Kira, do you really need your phone? Kira, why are you so pissed off?!? Calm down and go to work" It's all pretty funny AFTER the fact but in the moment, not so much :) As for lunches, Matt has always had that chore (yipeeee!) and no matter how many times he tries to get out of it, I hold strong. PB&J is now an every day staple. Otherwise it's Ham and cream cheese. We are sooo boring. Katie but a stop to danimals yogurts, though. Now its mini wrapped cheeses. When the mom-in-laws are with us is only time Katie gets some unique stuff -hard boiled eggs, etc. xoxo Hugs, Kiwi

Katie said...

Thanks for the notes, encouragement, and ideas. You are treasures. Sorry to hear you get in crazy, silly tizzies, too, Kiwi. UGH! Yes, that was the long hug, R--mama threw a tantrum.
See you both soon! k

fiona said...

Ah lunches... I gave that one up after spending mega bucks at Whole Foods (of all places) creating the most perfect and wholesome pack lunches for Miss J's lunch box, only for it to come home on a daily basis resembling something I may have driven over in my driveway - all uneaten of course.

I finally broke down after one too many morning meltdowns, took J to our local QFC, gave her the basket and let her go for it. I was pleasantly surprised that she did read the labels (that organic indoctrination did pay off) and assembled a half decent lunch. Some of it, I'm not entirely convinced is so great, but I figure that it's better my skinny thang of a daughter ate something at lunchtime, rather than nothing.

Her pack lunch is prepped as soon as she takes her lunch bag out of her school backpack that evening. She selects her lunch fixings from different boxes: ie. 1 bag of crackers, 1 luna bar.. etc...Lunch goes in the fridge the night before and the morning is harmonious, stress free and divine...!

OK.. scratch that..NOT QUITE! ;-)

We don't argue about lunches anymore, it's usually clothes and accessories now.. but one WORLD WAR at a time I say...

Hugs to you and all us mommas

Jaime Webber said...

This is sounding like a chapter from my new book..."how can I please you today? Stories of mommyhood." Seriously, is there nothing that will make them happy? Luckily Dyl will buy most days and Miss Hannah has the same four things every flippin day! But it was a struggle for the first month. Do they realize how good they have it? I mean come on- if they only had the lunches I had: a squished pb&j on thin wheat bread, cut up oranges that made everything taste like oranges, a baggy of cheese its, and if we were lucky a granola bar. That was it! No fun yogurts or 100 calorie packs of oreo's! Maybe for one day we should show them what it is really like to have a sucky lunch. Hmmm... I might be on to something. I'll let you know :)

KarenK said...

I have yet to hit the lunch box battle, but one of my good friends had similar frustration-- until she realized why her kid wasn't eating hardly anything from his packed lunch-- he was in too much of a hurry to get to the fun part of lunch--recess!!! I think having kiddos either make or help make or do some of the shopping is a good idea too-- a little more of a personal investment from Liv and Aud perhaps? CSR will make sandwiches from time to time-- usually with one glob of peanut butter in the middle of the bread and honey oozing all over the place... but he did make it. ;-) Good luck.

Katie said...

update on lunches---I punted on caring about them this week. a lot of rice cakes, crackers, and juice. not proud of the nutritional content but did not go insane either. a migraine on Mon. sidelined me something awful --had to leave a TV shoot since I lose vision and had to sit with my eyes closed in a downtown parking lot for an hour until I could drive home to bed- yuck....Anway, part of me attributes the migraine to my tantrum the other day...k