There seem to be way too many parents out there who are constitutionally unable to say “No.” These are the ones who bitch and moan loudest about the cereal aisle, as Little Billy and Suzie grab boxes and bags and crates of Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs and hurl them into the shopping cart, as Mommy and Daddy stand haplessly by.
Just. Say. No.
Part of saying no is not just saying no, but giving options. When it comes to cereal, we have two:
- Anything that’s super-sweet we simply call “camping cereal.” It’s a special treat, provided only on camping trips and other such occasions. If Katherine squawks for Fruit Loops or Lucky Charms — “Sorry, honey, that’s camping cereal, you know that.”
-
Look for alternatives. At the store on Saturday, Katherine pointed out the Fruit Loops and some other stuff. We got her looking at the sugar content. Down at the bottom was Cheerios, at 1g sugar per serving (Katherine thinks of them as “packets” of sugar, which is even better). When you get into the Apple Jacks and stuff like that, you’re talking 12, 13, 14g of sugar. When looked at like that, Katherine understands (just as I understand that plain Cheerios are too bland). So instead we found
some “organic” (it says it on the box) Fruit Loops substitutes that have only 7g of sugar. Not great, but not bad. And Kitten ate-them-up-yum this morning with no problem.
And for kids who cannot be mollified by anything less than the box that has Media Character X or Toy Y — tough patooties. Offer the alternatives (“You can have this, or this, or this, choose one”) and if they refuse the alternatives, they just don’t get anything. And if they pitch a fit, time-outs and more drastic punishments are fine alternatives.
The diktat “Because I’m the parent, that’s why” is open to abuse, certainly. But it’s got a large pit of truth in it — if you’re not the parent, who will be?
(And, yes, Avo, I remember that it’s Buzzy the Hummingbird …)
🙂
“You know why you shake like that? Vitamin deficiency, I bet.”
Ok, Dave…where’s the back story?
No backstory. We were shopping on Saturday, we did the comparisons, Katherine went along, we spotted the Loopesque cereal, Katherine approved, Margie mentioned by IM this morning that she’d downed the whole bowl.
A relatively healthy and aesthetically pleasing breakfast. How novel that it didn’t require trinkets and trademarked cartoon figures and tantrums.
Except for those multipacks of small boxes that I was allowed occaisionally in the summer. the most sugary cereal I was allowed was “Alpha-Bits” which I don’t even see at the market anymore.
Well, that’s kind of the genesis of “camping cereal” as a label. While I remember early days when Captain Crunch and Quisp and Quake were on the table, that changed pretty much in my household to eventually be just, yes, those little multi-pack boxes (which were so cool) on vacations at the cabin. Katherine gets that sort of thing only at KOA, or sometimes and Mor-Mor and Mor-Far’s. It’s an exceptional treat (and since we indulge ourselves there, too, why not let her do so a bit?).