As with a lot of families, pizza night is a mainstay in our household. We generally do it every Friday night. We pick out a fun family movie to watch, enjoy pizza, catch up, and best of all, RELAX! Usually the week for me is filled with busy kid schedules, a lot of home cooked meals and snacks (which I love to do), and a busy blog and home-based business to tend to. So, it's nice to have a "night off" from cooking.
In my typical fashion, though, I am a nut about making sure the kids get their fruits and veggies for the day. In general, they LOVE fruits and vegetables. I can't complain, they are very open to them, truly enjoy eating them, and it's just a regular part of our lives.
And then comes pizza night.....Why do I feel like I am breaking the law if I DON'T give them vegetables with their pizza? On most pizza nights, I do include carrot sticks, red pepper sticks, apple slices, or something similar. But on our most recent Friday night, I found myself saying, "...would it be so terrible if they only had pizza?"
The not-so-shocking reality is that they will live! But I think this points to a bigger problem and stigma that we, as parents (particularly Moms) place on ourselves. In my humble opinion, Moms in particular feel very guilty if they feel they aren't living up to either their own, or societies', expectations of how they should conduct themselves as a parent. Did you read to your child enough today? Did they get enough exercise? Did you play enough with them? DID YOU PAY ATTENTION TO THEM?!
I ask myself at least one of these questions everyday. The health and well-being of your children can certainly be overwhelming a lot of the time, causing anxiety. I think all parents, rightly so, are guilty of this at least once during their parenting career. But the fact that I am even writing this blog post assures me that the choices I am making as a parent are the right ones.
So, did I cave and serve them carrots or strawberries that night? Nope. But my blender was whirling the next morning, filled with trendy, must-have smoothie items like kale, chia seeds, and greek yogurt. They slurped it down.....and all was right with the world.
