Being a parent is a very thankless job...for at least the first 30 or so years. There are many things that we do and sacrifice to give our children everything we possibly can to make their lives better and easier. We sacrifice our clothing, walking around in sweats and underwear without elastic, so our children can have money for the book order at school or the hottest shoes. We sacrifice our personal hygiene, skipping a hair cut or color so our kids can have gas money or play the sport they love so much. We sacrifice all kinds of things, putting ourselves last or next to last most of the time. I admit that I was an unappreciative kid too, until I was actually old enough to recognize my parent's sacrifices for me. As a stay at home parent, I have to remind myself they aren't being ungrateful on purpose or to hurt my feelings. They DO appreciate what I do for them, they just don't know it yet!
Cooking. I used to LOVE cooking. I loved coming up with my own recipes. I loved cutting veggies and fresh spices and exploring new ways to cook things and use different appliances to my benefit. I didn't care how much the spices cost or how rare they were to find, I loved it all. Cooking for my husband and myself used to be so gratifying and I was proud of my work and he appreciated every meal. He STILL appreciates every meal, it is these darn kids that act like I am trying to feed them poison.
I make the regular stuff like spaghetti, pizza, tacos, baked chicken, stir fry etc... Sometimes they love these things and other times they look at it and scoff, "Ewww I hate that" even though they ate it last week and asked for seconds. I try new stuff too and try to integrate some new things with the old HOPING to find a new family favorite. No matter what I make, Callie walks to the table, looks at it and says, "I am NOT eating that. I don't like that!!" So the rule at our house is you at least have to take one bite. You are NOT allowed to say you don't like something based on looks alone, you take a bite and if you don't like it, you don't have to eat it. You don't get another choice though, this is dinner.
So Callie looks at it like it is dog food, even if it is steak, and I try to bribe her to take her one bite and she tries to refuse so I get it on the fork to feed it to her, and she still refuses. Eventually I tell her, "Open your mouth and close your eyes and you will get a big surprise!" She falls for it every time and I put the food in question into her mouth and most of the time she says, "yummy." I don't want to have this "fight" I am exhausted by dinner time and most of the time I don't feel like cooking anyway. I only do it because I have kids and you can't just skip feeding them. If I were to be living on my own or with another adult, I wouldn't make a thing. I would have a pop tart or a bowl of ice cream or a few beers for dinner!!
Cooking, which used to be something I looked forward to and had fun with is now the ultimate chore. I hardly enjoy it at all. Even the things I try to do specifically for them backfire in my face. I hate cooked carrots BUT in an effort to try to get them to eat those veggies I came up with a recipe to make honey glazed carrots with butter, honey and brown sugar, that might as well have been CANDY and they still didn't like it. I mean I used REAL butter people! Who doesn't like something with real butter?? Crack Heads!
So now every day I am searching and thinking and pissing and moaning cause I don't want to cook dinner. I don't want to make lunch. I don't want to be in the kitchen 14 hours a day like I feel I am. It is wake up and make breakfast, clean up, get people drinks or a snack about 12 seconds after breakfast is done and clean up again. Then I look at the clock and it is time to start on lunch! For crying out loud!! Make lunch, watch them pick at it and barely eat a thing then ask for a snack immediately after I clean up lunch. Sit down in the living room and, "I'm thirsty." Back to the kitchen. Then it is time to prep and make dinner, fight the kids to eat some damn food, remind them that I wouldn't feed them poison, or dog poop or dirt, clean up again and just when you think it is all over, "can we get a snack?" Uh yes, it is called dinner, ENJOY! Day after day of the same damn thing. No wonder cooking has gotten to be a chore. My husband appreciates every meal, like I said, he knows better than to complain cause then he will be cooking his own dang dinner every night! The kids will compliment certain meals such as ramen noodles, spaghetti o's or a pb and j with, "This is like a restaurant Mom!" Really? I make homemade chicken broth by boiling down the bones of an entire chicken and Ramen is like a restaurant??!!! Infuriating!
There is another rule at our house that goes something like this, "you don't have to eat, but you have to sit here with your family and talk about your day." Why? Because that is what we do here, we are a family. So I get to thinking, why is it that we do this and feel that we must do this because we are family? Well, now that is interesting. We do it because our parents did the same for us. They took on the chore of cooking, the fights, the whining and crying, the cleaning up, the 12 hour day in the kitchen and they told us that we will sit and eat and appreciate this meal...25 years from now when we are dealing with the same damn thing from our own ungrateful little brats!
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