Outstanding parents !

I have a fiery temper..at the same time I am pretty rational. ( how the two go hand in hand is a mystery!)
This post is about the ‘outstnading parents’ that make me feel murderous..( and yes, I am still rational)

The first group is the “pure breed”..
The first one I met was in Malaysia, they were the parents of one of Yaya’s classmate and were on a mission to create a pure breed culturally appropriate child.
They believed that KFC and McD were the evil forces that were created to corrupt  children and the kids must be taught not to fall for the ‘temptation’ of eating in those horrible places that serve horribly unhealthy food.
I believe each to his own, if they didn’t want to take their child to KFC or McD, that was their choice. But for me, a mother of three kids, McD gave me an hour of peace and tranquility.. When the kids were crabby and it was a rainy evening, we went to McD. I took my book with me and read while my kids played safely in the enclosed play area.. and the best part of my evening was I had three happy kids and no mess to clean!
But then the said anti KFC parents started using their kids in their propaganda and the said kid asked Yaya.”You go to McD? My parents say they serve  very unhealthy food. They love us so much, so my mom cook all our food at home because it is healthy”
Yaya was 6 years old then. She was heartbroken.. that her mother didn’t love her and that is why she took her to McD. I tried to explain to her that I love her very much ..but my struggle didn’t end there..
I had to pack snack and lunch for Yaya.. and I usually send nuggets as snack and cooked something healthy for lunch..
“You can’t eat nugget” said the annoying kid. “nuggets are processed meat, they are unhealthy”
and Yaya stopped eating nuggets.
It wasn’t possible for me to get carrots and celery sliced to bite sized pieces and make a perfectly healthy snack for yaya. I had to care for siblings too..
I felt murderous…

Years ago, while living in UK, I used to take care of two kids after school. My job involved picking them up from school, making something for them to eat and then wait for their parents to come. So one such day, as I waited for them to come out of the school, I saw this little girl holding a cupcake in her hand and running to her mother saying “mummy, look, I made a cupcake” and the mother snatched the cupcake from the child’s hand and said ” we are vegetarians, we will give this cupcake to daddy”.
You should have seen the child’s face.. and I felt murderous..

As for Yaya.. I waited for another rainy day..fixed her a nice salad..and told her to eat the healthy salad before we go to McD, so she won’t be hungry while her siblings eat their unhealthy burger..She got the message pretty quickly..

I am a vegetarian.. and I learned from the cupcake mother that..my values are my own..and I have no right to force it on my children..

Ps: I feel anything in moderation is fine. It wasn’t that we went to McD every day..Going to a fast food outlet was our rainy day treat..
Now, none of my kids eat at KFC or McD. and I love the vege burger at Hungry jacks and their spicy sauce..So I still go there once in a while and my kids give me that look that says ” I can’t believe you eat that crap” while they eat subway..Each to his own !!!

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