Last night we had a family movie night, our boys absolutely love movie night. We had the typical junk food; Oreo’s, BBQ chips and sprite. Not my pick but the boys pick from the store. I do not promote these types of foods for our boys, but I do also bend a little bit so I am not that “strict mom”. I am also not the only one that makes decisions for our family, so there’s that. We rented Toy Story 2 since the boys haven’t watched it yet. Maverick proceeds to eat chips like he was in a food eating contest, drank his little cup of Sprite super-fast and had about 4 Oreo’s. We warned him and told him he would get sick if he didn’t stop inhaling his chips. A 5-year-old typically doesn’t have that mindset yet. I cringed watching him eat and just kept thinking that this is not a good idea. I hate seeing them eat crap food, I literally hate it. After the movie was done, apparently the Oreo’s were not put away, Maverick was running around the house eating Oreo’s. I just thought he was running around while I did the dishes. No, he was consuming more crap.
So, one may tell me, “You are the mom just take it away.” “Don’t buy these foods, the kids can’t buy it themselves” or “You can stop him from eating too much”. Well, I do have to remind people that in life you must choose your battles. And sometimes people just need a learning experience. For years I have been on my husband about our boy’s food and feel like a strict broken record. I go through fazes and eat strict healthy and then get a little lax on things. I take things away and then give it back. Yes, it all comes down to be my fault and I need to be more consistent.
Well, last night Maverick threw up. I did not know or hear it, my husband did. My husband had to clean it all up and said it was a learning experience. He also told our son that he needs to listen to us and that we are going to cut out junk food. A part of me was happy to hear that it was a wakeup call for them and the other part of me cringed at the damage his body went through. So, this morning I told my husband that we are going to do a 30-day challenge with our family. 30 days without junk sweets, soda and junk foods. Our timeline will be perfect, in 30 days we should be closing escrow on our new (to us) home. We can celebrate with homemade cookies, by then I should be able to find a healthy chocolate chip cookie recipe.
So, what does this look like for me as a mom? I am on a journey to be the “strict mom” of food that comes into our home. I have no choice. To add more veggies into our diets, healthy fats, healthy green smoothies without apple juice. To have less “snack foods” and to make sure our boys eat their meals. And living a healthier lifestyle that I have been craving for our family. This is such a great and exciting time of our lives, even though I may be the only one excited about being healthy.
If you have any healthy recipes, green smoothies or toddler foods that they love, please let me know.
Flourishing Home with Hannah 