When my son was 8, I told him to pack some snacks for a hockey road-trip in his backpack. I checked to make sure he had (and police what he had packed ) and discovered a bowl, a spoon, a whole box of cereal, and 4 L of milk. Not bad. Impractical maybe, but cereal is a treat so he was heading in the right direction. I wasn’t sure how that 4L of milk was going to play out in a minivan with 5 boys but I’ve transported sheep in the back of it so there’s that.
Fast forward 10 years to last night. We were discussing an upcoming hockey road trip.
My husband and him said they were going to need some snacks for the bus. I said “I’ll get them. “ and they both said “NO!”at the same time.
I get it.
You don’t always want to be the person with thehomemade peanut butter sourdough sandwich, or the mason jar full of homemade beef jerky or the moose meat pepperoni, goat cheese, and nuts.
Sometimes you just want to be on the bus eating a store bought treat. And it IS truly a treat, it doesn’t happen every day. So my convenience store loving husband will get the snacks. I will make sure he has a good breakfast and I will leave it alone.
Forcing food values down peoples’ throats 24/7 is never my overreaching goal. It’s exhausting, backs you into a corner of self righteousness and frankly doesn’t work.
But I also know the majority of the world today is singing to a different tune all around us.
We do what we can (which frankly is a helluva lot considering we grow 80% of our own food) and I try to remember the home I have been called to create for my family. The one where we have food values but everyone also has autonomy to make decisions about what goes in their body. As long as they are informed because that’s my job as a mom.
But here’s what I also want my kids to know : you have to be prepared to be a little weird. okay , a lot weird. To have the strength of character to be the person who is okay going a different way because it settles your soul and that’s important.
Because what our kids don’t know is:
10 years quickly becomes 30 and suddenly you are sitting in a heavily financed minivan where you spend more time than your bed, letting your kids eat happy meals in the back ironically as you take them to sports activities where stressed out parents gather after working their butts off in jobs to pay for houses you never get to just sit in and enjoy.
You want them to know there’s a different way. And sometimes it starts with being a little weird.
Love your weirdo friend,
Jenn xx