Every few hours, I get a little knot in my stomach.
And it’s not because I’m hungry (although I usually am).
But it is because of food. Food that’s not even going to touch my lips. But it will – hopefully – touch the girls’ lips, in addition to their chins, fingers, wrists, foreheads, and sometimes even ears.
I get a tad nervous every time I have to prepare their meals, because it’s such a big responsibility. It’s all up to me. I am the sole determiner of their nutritional status. Of course, I’m also largely responsible for many other areas of their life, such as language and emotional development, but for some reason, I feel more confident in those departments. I figure if I talk to them clearly and often, set boundaries and discipline them when they misbehave, and give them frequent hugs and smiles, they’ll pretty much turn out okay.
But when it comes to food, I feel like if I feed them one too many animal crackers, their teeth are going to fall out. And if I miss one too many vegetable servings, they’re going to end up with scurvy. And then I would have gap-toothed pirates for children, and it would be all my fault.
So I plan, and I chop, and I wring my hands and throw in a few extra veggies for good measure. And I end up with a meal that looks something like this:
And then I realize I’m forgetting all about protein (Hmm…what disease do you get when you’re deficient in protein? Google says: Kwashiokor. Add that to my list of potential motherly nightmares). So I cook an egg with cheese.
The girls wolf it all down and scamper off to play. I’m left with dirty dishes, happy children…and a few hours to kill before I have to do it all again. I’m not sure how long I can keep this up. They’ve only been eating exclusively table foods for a few weeks now. I think I see Spaghetti-O’s in the near future.
What to do pirates say? Aaaaaargh
I saw your comment at SiTG and wanted to encourage you. I left a similar comment at SiTG awhile back, but I made the mistake of saying something along the lines of feeling pity for those who do not have children as they do not have the chance to feel/understand this love that a parent has for their babies (and how it relates to what God feels for us). Some woman was offended and tried to land on me with both heels. I did the perfunctory apology, but I still feel the same. You’ll find as time goes on that your heart aches from loving them, and you think its impossible to love them more but you do.
Don’t worry about what may be missing from a particular meal, as other “nutrition needs” can be caught up in the next few meals. Babies/kids may look so fragile but they are so tough. I’ve heard of a boy in England who primarily ate peanut butter jelly sandwiches, yet grew up through his teens. They’re OK, but every day? There are many families south-of-the-border who survive on beans-rice-tortillas for protein. Find a good book on vegetarian diets and complementary proteins (no, I’m not a vegetarian nor do I play one on the blogosphere) for more info.
Homemade bread!? You’re amazing! That looks like a yummy meal! I remember stressing that Adam wouldn’t eat enough because he would completely skip meals but as the others came along I could see that it wasn’t critical that every meal be nutritionally complete because they do catch up with other meals. Thanks for your wonderful comment on my blog 🙂 I changed my Blog header to a phrase that you coined but I don’t think you see it if you are reading solely on Google Reader. So thanks for the inspiration 🙂
Give hugs to those sweet babies!!
I can remember my wife having a VERY similar stress factor at about the same age as your girls. You probably already do this, but she finally made a list with columns and hung it on our refridgerator. She had a column for fruits, vegs, grains, and proteins. She thought through all of the “doable” quick solutions for each of these categories, and included it on the list.
Then, when she went to make a meal, she could look and go “oh yeah, I could make them this, this, and this from each category”.
It really seemed to help her.
Thanks all for your encouragement! (And Ramona, don’t be too impressed – I used a bread machine, and I had to dust the thing off before using it. It’s probably been 3 years since I dragged the thing out of the cupboard. And my yeast was even older than that, hence the “stubby” appearance of the loaf!)
Brad, that’s a wonderful idea for the food chart. I’ll definitely use your suggestion. That will take some of the last-minute “what on earth can I feed my screaming children” pressure off!