And the Beat Goes On ... And On
here has been an old saying around for a long time that states..“You are what you eat.” Everytime I hear this saying, it makes me worry a little. If it has any truth to it,. I am living in the house with a junk food junkie (“Clark”) and a “You fix it and I’ll eat” Mr M). I prefer to think of myself as a cafeteria.
Seems one of the toughest household jobs, that requires the most decision making, is Mom’s full time job of grocery shopping and meal planning. I am completely convinced that these two Mommie duties are the most tiresome and boring duties that a Mom has to perform.
Grocery shopping is always the same old drag. You walk up and down the same old aisles and pick up the same old items, week after week. When you get home, chances are that you have forgotten to buy the item that you forgot to buy the week before. Nine times out of ten, you have picked up another box of salt like the one you bought last week, and you still do not have any pepper in the cupboard. I have found that a grocery list is not always the answer, most of the time when I make a grocery list. I leave it where it will do the most good…on the kitchen counter.
Meal planning is also a drag. I try to give myself plenty of time for meal planning. I usually plan our meals thirty minutes before we sit down to eat. The one exception to the rule is when we are expecting company, then I plan the meal thirty days in advance instead of thirty minutes. This makes a good impression on your guests, they think you are as organized as the chefs on a cruise ship.
Trying to get family in put into family meals is not an easy task either. When I ask “Mr M” and “Clark” what they would like to eat for supper. I always get the same answers, time after time. “Clark” wants cheeseburgers, hot dogs or pizza and “Mr M” wants me to make the decision. I am convinced if junk food would go on the endangered species list tomorrow, “Clark” would become a junk food poacher before the end of the month. He thinks that if it doesn’t have a bun and mustard on it or sauce on top of it…it’s not fit to eat. This type of attitude does not help when you are trying to feed the family seven days a week.
With “Clark” being no help so far as planning supper is concerned, I turn to “Mr M” for help with the decision. Now let me state that “Mr M” is the easiest family member to please, as far as meals are concerned. His famous answer to the question…“What do you want for supper?” is always. “I don’t care I’ll eat it.” This is not always the answer I am looking for, but I have found out, it will have to do. You would think that after you have heard the same answer to the same question, day after day and week after week, it would deter a person from asking the question, but it doesn’t…I still ask the question in hopes that someday he will tell me. I have heard that in some cases, persistence has paid off.
The reason I think of myself as a cafeteria, is because Mothers learn to become cafeterias, as soon as they become Mothers. It starts with the simple task of tasting baby food and continues through all the years that they are raising kids. When a kid has something on their plate that they don’t want to eat they automatically think. “that’s alright, give it to Mom, she will eat anything.” This is the reason Mom cooks the food that she likes, she knows she will end up eating most of it anyway. Many times we have sat in a restaurant and my plate looks like I have ordered my dinner from the vegetable stand down the street. I can’t find my meat for all the tomatoes and pickles that have been stacked on top of it. The only thing I can’t remember ever having to eat the last bite of is the ice cream.
So the beat goes on, buy the groceries, ask the question, fix the meals and try to eat all the food that the kids won’t eat, and Mom, in the end you can bet the results will be the same…having to find the calorie counter again, so Mom can lose the extra ten pounds that found their way to her hips, while Dad and the kids get off scott free.
