Living with mom is mostly great. We have a live-in babysitter who sometimes folds our laundry, and if we're out of cooking oil or apples then it is only a trip downstairs to borrow them. My mom lives in the bottom level of our duplex and splits her time between here and her brother's house in Florida. The main problem is that grandparents have different 'parenting styles' and that means that when she is in town we have full time spoilage going on. She's a big TV watcher. So the kids go downstairs knowing that she'll turn on Nick Jr. and feed them strawberries and bread. As hard as I try to convince her not to give the kids sugary foods, dairy, wheat, meat with nitrates and hormones; she continues to be their pusher. Yes, a pusher. She comes home from work with a pizza from Costco and starts asking Kaio, "Can I get you slice of pizza, honey?" She needs to fill his belly up, no matter what type of food. I've tried to explain the concept of nutrient rich foods vs. bleached, processed, chemically sprayed, pasteurized products but this seems to be quickly erased from her mind when faced with a good deal at Costco.
She literary told me, "But, he wants to eat the jelly, I can't stop him." I was like, "yes you can, you are the adult." So she started buying organic strawberry jelly, gluten free bread and Rice Dream. But she is still not there yet, not investigative and suspicious of food labels.
I made her a raw goat kefir smoothy after she was feeling rotten post antibiotic regimen. She then went to the supermarket and bought loads of kefir, which is great, except when she started giving it to the kids. It looked like a green-washed brand and was sweetened with added sugar. It tasted more like an ice cream than something healthy. The kids quickly began fixated on it and drank loads and then did not want dinner. It is difficult for me to compete with that and not be a bad guy.
I know I'm on the extreme end of the healthy eating spectrum, but I don't want my kids eating factory raised chicken and beef on a daily or even weekly basis. I have to be on top of her constantly. She even sneaks them things and says, "don't tell mommy."
I've tried buying her snacks and food to give them and giving her books to read them and puzzles as an alternative to TV. But there is always going to be this gap between what we each think makes a healthy body and mind grow. She's my mom, I can't fire her.
We live really blessed with the loving contribution she makes to the kids lives. I just wish that I could bring them up on exclusively healthy foods.
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