Flash forward a few (very awesome) years and I'm married and have an adorable and typically picky-eating toddler, FrenchFry. Now ketchup HAS to be a vegetable! Not only is ketchup considered a veggie in our house, it is also the vehicle by which we can actually get FrenchFry to eat any food some days (or weeks). And pizza? PIZZA? Tomato sauce is clearly enough of a vegetable to help me sleep at night. I mean - that is if there wasn't that toddler climbing into my bed in the wee hours, but that's a whole other issue for me to worry, fret and lie to myself about.
I'm one of those moms (is there a different type these days?) that has spent countless hours on my iPhone reading up on virtually every aspect of fertility, pregnancy, childbirth, and taking care of the little buggers once they are on the outside.
Before FrenchFry was born I spent a lot of time reading articles about how making your own organic baby food is really the only smart thing to do (who would spend all that money on something you can make yourself?!). I was going to be a cloth diapering, breastfeeding, makin' my own organic baby food, no TV, and no processed food for MY kid kind of mom. Some of those things stuck (still nursing FrenchFry at 25 months and we did pretty good with the TV thing) but plenty of my pre-baby ideas have gone by the wayside. (Who freaking has time to make your own baby food when they sell it in those convenient little pouches?!)
And I'm okay with that. It took some time but the guilt - of being a new mom, a working mom, a sending my kid to daycare mom, a my kid eats non-organic fruit that I mostly remember to wash mom... an IMPERFECT MOM (who loves her kid with all of her heart) - that guilt has mostly quieted these days. It's still there, but it's no longer in the foreground. These days I skip clicking on the "you're a terrible parent if you rock your kid to sleep" posts and revel in the ones that say organic food is over-rated. I'm not saying it's over-rated. I really have no clue, but to keep the scared, guilty mom voice quiet I've decided to focus on the fact that I do the best I can and make the best decisions I know how. And so far - the kid seems pretty alright.
These days if my kid is crying for a snack in the car and I find a bag of stale pretzel sticks under the seat I feel like I'm Super Mom.
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| See? It says TOMATO right on it! |
I'm one of those moms (is there a different type these days?) that has spent countless hours on my iPhone reading up on virtually every aspect of fertility, pregnancy, childbirth, and taking care of the little buggers once they are on the outside.
Before FrenchFry was born I spent a lot of time reading articles about how making your own organic baby food is really the only smart thing to do (who would spend all that money on something you can make yourself?!). I was going to be a cloth diapering, breastfeeding, makin' my own organic baby food, no TV, and no processed food for MY kid kind of mom. Some of those things stuck (still nursing FrenchFry at 25 months and we did pretty good with the TV thing) but plenty of my pre-baby ideas have gone by the wayside. (Who freaking has time to make your own baby food when they sell it in those convenient little pouches?!)
And I'm okay with that. It took some time but the guilt - of being a new mom, a working mom, a sending my kid to daycare mom, a my kid eats non-organic fruit that I mostly remember to wash mom... an IMPERFECT MOM (who loves her kid with all of her heart) - that guilt has mostly quieted these days. It's still there, but it's no longer in the foreground. These days I skip clicking on the "you're a terrible parent if you rock your kid to sleep" posts and revel in the ones that say organic food is over-rated. I'm not saying it's over-rated. I really have no clue, but to keep the scared, guilty mom voice quiet I've decided to focus on the fact that I do the best I can and make the best decisions I know how. And so far - the kid seems pretty alright.
These days if my kid is crying for a snack in the car and I find a bag of stale pretzel sticks under the seat I feel like I'm Super Mom.
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| Mmmm.... FrenchFry loves his ketchup. |
Oh and ketchup - ketchup is a life saver.
Totally agree that when you start parenting, you quickly learn which rules you are happy to loosen up on a bit! I'm with you about the ketchup! :-)
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