Good Mommy/Bad Mommy?......You be the Judge

I consider myself to have fairly strong opinions when it comes to raising the little one. (I know plenty of you probably think they're pretty weird, too.) I try to be as consistent as possible in the things I do, but at the same time, I see the need to instill flexibilty in her.

For instance, I don't buy fruit snacks for her. I think they're void of nutrition and I may as well be feeding her candy. I don't want her getting so much sweet stuff that she doesn't enjoy the natural sweetness of fruit. So I buy her dried fruit instead and she loves it. She doesn't even miss not having fruit snacks. I do allow her to eat fruit snacks if someone gives them to her, though. And I don't even cringe.

As for holidays and vacations, pretty much anything goes. I mean, how can I tell the grandmas no more candy? Or the Easter Bunny for that matter? Or Sue at chuch in Pecos who has candy for all the kids on Sunday, and when Clara runs out of her candy before church even starts, her Bia goes to Sue to tell her that her poor grandbaby ran out of candy and is crying so could she please have some more? How can I say no to that? Flexibility is key. I don't bat an eyelash at all the bad stuff she gets at holidays or while out of town.

Man, what am I even talking about? That has nothing to do with the original intent of this post, but that's a lot of writing (as nonsensical as it may be), to just delete it and start over, so I'll try to get back to my point, which was that typically I don't have things that I'm wishy washy about. But there is one thing.

Do I let my two year old lick the cake batter?

I'm serious; I've really struggled with whether or not to let her lick batter or eat cookie dough. I don't know the statistics on getting salmonella from eating raw eggs, but even if it's small, do I really want to be the party responsible for my child getting an intestinal bacterial infection and all the joys that go with it? Not to mention the fact that I'll be the one caring for the salmonella infected child and cleaning up all the nasty salmonella infected messes.

But, on the other hand, cake batter is sooooooo yummy. I mean, really really yummy. I still love licking the bowl after making a cake. And cookie dough? Cookie dough rocks! Memaw used to make cookie dough for us when we were out at the farm. She had no intention of making actual cookies out of it. Memaw rocked! So how could I deprive the youngun' of such wonderful memories of raw egg consumption?

At this point, I'm confused. Does this make me a good Mommy or a bad Mommy? I'll just go with good. Oh, but I forgot one thing. Not sure if it was the eggs or what, but she got some pretty bad bumps around her mouth. Worse than normal. Oopsie.

See, there are those times that I think on it and decide, ya know, I probably shouldn't have done that. And then there are other instances when I amaze myself with my cleverness and awesome parenting skills. Today, I made her some trail mix. I had on hand dried berries, raisins, sunflower seed kernels and granola, but never thought to mix them together. How clever am I? She loved it. And last night at dinner, I convinced her to eat lettuce for the first time. I asked her if she knew what animal liked to eat lettuce and informed her that bunnies eat lettuce. Bunnies like Bugs Bunny. She gobbled it right up. Oh, and I've been able to hide chopped up turkey in her macaroni and cheese on several occassions. I somehow got her to eat ham tonight for the first time too. She seems to finally be branching out, thank goodness. It's hard to find something for her to eat when we go out. It wouldn't be so bad, but between the pickiness and lactose intolerance, there's not much to choose from on a kids menu.

For my reference, here's a list of things she still will not touch: rice, beans, most meats, cooked veggies (except sweet potatos), eggs, strawberries, sandwiches (only cheese or grilled cheese), hamburgers, hotdogs, pizza (she's only eaten a bite or two ever), and anything with seasoning (must be the supertaster genes, huh Jason?).

While I'm on the subject of food, I forgot to mention one of the reasons why Clara hasn't been eating as much. She always gets food at breakfast and lunch that I know she likes (and can usually eat more than me). Last week we decided to stop offering her something different at dinner. Up until now, I've always put one thing on her plate I know she'll eat, like bread or fruit. I guess it was always enough to tide her over until breakfast, so it wasn't forcing her to try the other food on her plate. Now she gets only what I've cooked for dinner and if she doesn't want it, she doesn't eat. It seems to be working because she is trying new foods.

Here's Clara and Daddy hanging out tonight.