My kids don’t drink soda…..and other reasons I am a horrible Mom!

Like most Moms, my priority is the health and well-being of my children. I protect them as best I can from harm, feed them a mostly organic diet, expose them to no harsh chemicals in our home and teach them smart choices for when they aren’t actually with me to make the choice for them. But, somehow I am depriving my kids…..at least that’s what my mother-in-law thinks!! We went to visit recently and she proudly pulled out an industrial sized bottle of fruit punch. I asked who she bought it for and she answered it was for my kids. For the record, my kids have NEVER drank fruit punch at her house, nor have they drank it at our house, which I tried to gently point out to her. As a matter of fact, if you were to give my 14 year old son a choice between, say, soda, juice, or water he will always choose water. Yes, I am proud of this! I am proud that he always has a glass of water by his side when at home and that he never asks for anything else. Now, my younger son, on the other hand, likes other “stuff” too. Mostly, he drinks water, but he is also a milk drinker(organic, of course), loves organic lemonade in the summertime, and as a super special treat I buy him his own four pack of locally produced root beer.

Back to my mother-in-law. Don’t get me wrong, I love my mother-in-law, but she loves her children and grandchildren with food and not exactly the food I would choose for my family. So she says things like “poor thing” when I don’t allow my younger son one of her caffeine free diet colas! Are you kidding me?? From the artifical sweetener to the simply empty calories, we will pass and my children can continue to “suffer” through the healthy habits I am teaching them that will hopefully last their lifetimes. Oh, and for the record, too, my boys are both a healthy weight and height and are rarely sick! This isn’t to say that they don’t have an occasional “treat,” but even then it is a decent treat. Something like a locally made ice cream, or homemade muffins with coconut oil and whole wheat flour or organic gummy bears. Poor little things, I don’t know how they survive.

I used to actually feel bad about saying anything, like I was being rude if I didn’t eat what she offered or brought my own food to prepare, but then I realized that would be compromising who we are and the lifestyle I choose to teach my children and that’s all that matters. It is about them! For the record, my mother-in-law is aware that I was going to “pick” on her in this post and was a good sport about it so don’t go hunting her down to tattle on me or send me messages about how I am an ungrateful human being!! What this boils down to is this: whether it is a mother-in-law, friend, sister, or brother, you should never compromise your beliefs or lifestyle to “please” them or because you don’t want to cause any “trouble.”