Finding a healthy balance is what’s important to me and my hubby when it comes to the kids. There’s always a time to play, time to eat junk, eat healthy, time to rest etc etc.
On special events such as the 4th of July, the kids had popsicles, cupcakes 🧁 and it was ok. Although we monitored the junk given it was a time to HAVE FUN.
There was one moment before we began our 4th of July activities, that my daughter kept saying she was hungry but as soon as she saw all the festivities and other young kids, it was a wrap. She totally forgot she was hungry. I had to find her and say “Rey, you have plenty of time to play, you need to eat right now because by the time everything is over you will have not had anything on your stomach…and you will be mad”
She stopped what she was doing and took the time to eat some hotdogs before heading back out to play. Although that wasn’t even considered healthy, it was enough to keep fueled and not have any empty stomach.
I am reminded of a story I heard and read about, of a mother who was very strict in keeping her kids on tight sleep routine. Bedtime was like 6:30p or close to it, EVERYDAY, no questions asked. She was following this routine so that they got plenty of rest and were not tired the next day and it did not interfere with such things like school. She would also follow this routine herself. Now to each their own in how we raise our children. It makes me wonder though, if there was ever any leniency on the weekends or special holidays were the kids would be missing out due to having to get to bed earlier than most kids, and even her having to say no to going out to kick it because her and her kids had to be in bed by a certain time.
I share all of this to say, us as parents, its so important to not get caught up keeping everything so regimented that we forget our kids are KIDS. We live LIFE. There are times we stay on track with what is best for us and our kids, but its healthy to hop off the tracks every now and then and do things differently. Of course we want them to be healthy and provide them with the best we can, but its equally important to show them balance of teaching them responsibility of living a healthy lifestyle, but also times to just have fun and in adult language “turn up”.