Here’s what I can’t stand about my kids: they expect to be fed.
Regularly. Like, more than once a day.
Which means I have to go grocery shopping. All. The. Time.
You would think, considering how often I go to the grocery store, that I would expand my gastronomic horizons. But that doesn’t seem to happen. It’s as if my feet slide along magnetized grooves that lead me to the same spots in the same aisles for the same staples: Raspberries. Mac n Cheese. Lemonade. Etc.
No matter how often I go to the grocery store, we are always, perpetually, out of something. As in:
“Mom! Why don’t we have any good desserts?!”
“Mom! You forgot to get milk!”
“Mom! You got the orange Mac n Cheese and you KNOW I only eat the white Mac n Cheese!”
Can you hear the snipe-y, accusatory tones in their voices? Like nails on a chalkboard?
So last Sunday, when Franny boarded the bus for sleepaway camp, and the other parents were madly waving, and wiping bereft, teary eyes, and snapping iPhone photos of their children being ferried off to camp, I could not have been more thrilled to have a kid-free home for two weeks because it meant:
I did not have to go to the grocery store unless I felt like it.
I did not have to fix any ungrateful small people dinner only to have them say, “we’re having the same thing AGAIN?” when they completely don’t acknowledge that the same thing is the only thing they’ll eat?
I could eat WHATEVER I wanted for dinner. In fact, I could even SKIP dinner if I wanted. HA!
The other night, I arrived home to find, like, five things in the refrigerator. But they were all edible things. Edible things that I turned into a dinner of baked cauliflower, sauteed spinach, and rice.
It was delicious. And it was especially delicious because I could never have made this meal with kids in the house. Because, you know what? My kids have never once asked: “Mom, could you make baked cauliflower, sauteed spinach, and rice for dinner?”
And I suspect they never will.
In six more days Franny and Luca will return from camp. In six days, I will, once again, be making what feels like a daily pilgrimage to the corner Ralph’s.
But not today.
Today, I’m thankful for not going to the grocery store.
Love it! Enjoy your hard earned freedom, Pauline. I remember my kids complaining about my cooking so I told them they were in charge of cooking. They rose to the occasion in a pinch. My son sent me to my room only to show up 15 minutes later with a glass of wine for me. It’s a funny memory now, but I remember the frustration of supper and their complaints all too well. A fun post so many of us relate to!
I love that your son brought you wine! I’ll have to teach my kids to do that.
If I never had to go to the grocery store again I’d be elated. There’s no chore that I dislike more than grocery shopping. I’d rather fold 20 loads of laundry than troll up and down the aisles. I completely understand.
Oh the fussing! I can sure do without that for sure. I don’t mind the grocery shopping but someone is always unhappy when dinner hits the table. Enjoy what is left of your “vacation.”
I’m with ya. I’m sitting here, dreading the daily dinner grind.
I so relate. I am starting a month of ”vacation” with my 4 kids at home, no AC, no desire to eat nor cook, no car, and no daily short stop at the grocery between work and daycare. I have a feeling we will run out of Popsicles very soon.
The grocery store is beyond exhausting. And since school is out it seems they eat constantly. Your dinner sounds lovely but if I don’t cook for them I never cook for me, Lean Cuisine or ice cream.
I am so tired of feeding my kids dinner. These people are grown or nearly so and they STILL ask me what’s for dinner every single night.
I so could have written that except mine aren’t at camp