Picking Battles
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You may think this is going to be post about picking my battles with my two-year-old.
Well, it’s not.
It’s about picking battles with my 60-something-year-old mother.
My mom does and says a lot that Adam and I don’t like, and we try to limit Lincoln’s alone time with her to avoid any influences we don’t agree with. That sounds terrible, but, you don’t even know…so, let’s move on.
She watches Linc once or twice a month and during this most recent visit to Grandma’s, she gave him a T.V. dinner.
At first I was EXTREMELY jealous because when I was little, my mom never got me the Kid Cuisine I wanted. Then I remembered the lengthy discussion I had (often) with her and how we try to eat whole foods at our house with few ingredients and nothing processed. I recalled we just had a discussion when she was over my house and wanted pop and I told her why we’ll never have pop at our house so she best bring her own.
Now, she’s giving my kid the stuff I don’t – OK, won’t.
I said, “Oh. A T.V. dinner, eh?”
She said, “YEAH! I was going to get him a Happy Meal, but I thought this was healthier.”
I didn’t say anything. God bless her if she thought that. I’m not sure which the better of the two evils so we’ll just assume she’s right. We’ll give her a point.
I figured it’s a rarity when grandma feeds him. When she watches him at our house, I’ve got his food ready. She knows she is NEVER to give him pop. NEVER. I think I told her one time that if she gave him pop, she’d never watch him again. I’m 50% sure she was taking me serious. I was serious.
Now, ya’ll know I may be a little weird about the food, but what about something you value just as much? What if someone did the opposite of what you consider important (without harming anyone), but they didn’t spend that much time with your kid – like Great-Auntie Em gave Billy a toy gun or let Sarah stay up to watch Leno? Is it worth saying something?
Erin Hill is a first-time mom to Lincoln, who was born in January 2010. She's learning as she goes and is experiencing everything a new mom goes through while seeing the humor, irony, and enjoyment in her adventures.
Erin is a full-time technical writer and features freelance writer in her "spare time." She lives in Plum with Lincoln, her husband, Adam, their dog, Roxie, and five (yes, five) cats, Nirvana, Gary Roberts, Elvis, Talbot and Forrest.