Ok, time to own up. I’m 6’2″ 209 lbs with 23% body fat and bald. Sometimes I think it’s amazing my wife still loves me. Today, I started the journey to better health. Our friends at replenishpdx have me on our cleanse and P90X is waiting in the wings. So, the first meal which included nuts, apple juice and coconut milk and other items, looks very questionable.  However, I will admit, it tasted great! Of course, I wanted to eat six more bowls of it, because it seemed like not enough. But, I do get to eat again in a couple hours. It’s a Blueberry Cucumber smoothie. Yes, I will post a picture and my reaction to it.

I was going to write this as a Dad’s only post, but the more I thought about it, I am sure there are mom’s who feel the same way.

What do you do when you find your kids able to divide and conquer? They ask for something, one parent says no and the other parent thinks it’s ok and so they end up giving the child what they want? It can be any sort of food, it can be clothes or anything a kid wants.

Here in our family there are times when I feel totally not listened to and I’ll be honest, because of my baggage and being a second child, when I am not listened to it pisses me off. I am working on it, but many it gets my blood boiling.

My example, while childish it may be, is this. I made dinner for everyone while they were out picking blueberries and mom was having connection time. Connor doesn’t like red pasta sauce so I made his noodles with butter. Everyone else started eating theirs. Connor inhaled his and he wanted more. I had prepared for this and so I gave him more with butter, but now he asked for cheese. WE didn’t have any. SO he got out of his seat and took a look in the fridge. Fine. Then he grabbed the cheddar cheese and asked me to cut some up and mix it in. Fine, I still hadn’t started on my dinner, but I didn’t mind. It was easy. So I cut it up, mixed it up and heated it up. After I served it to him, he said he wanted more cheese. I said no. That was enough cheese. Laura asked why. BOING! Problem starts.

Laura did tell Connor that she supported my decision but he persisted and she wavered soon thereafter and asked to talk with me out of the room. Ok, that was nice of her. So, I go to the bedroom where she has already started preparing more cheese for Connor on the friggin bed! I turned and left. What’s the point in talking when she was doing that?

While I felt furious, I was really sad. In fact, I am still sad this morning. Are these childhood issues? Hell yes it is. Can I do anything about it at this very moment? No. I do plan to share my feelings with them after breakfast. But what do you think? Do you ever experience issues/feelings like this? What do you do? Suppress the feelings? (By the way that includes just letting it blow over when you know it bothers you) Blow up? I would be interested to hear how others handle this. This could lead to an interesting discussion with Laura on Parenting Unplugged. I will be sure to NOT use your name.