I’m going to preface this by saying I fully appreciate all my husband does for our family. I truly know how busy he is, and how little free time he has.

But…Why does Daddy always buy junk food?

There’s something that happens when he goes to the grocery store. And it’s not pretty. This is nothing new, by the way. It’s been this way for as long as I can remember.

Something goes terribly wrong when my husband starts walking the isles of any grocery store. It’s like the rows and rows of processed food are calling his name and he doesn’t have a choice but to listen. And, reach out and touch. Not just something but everything.

The result: a plethora of processed food comes into my house, takes up residence next to my organic, healthy, and overly priced food, causing my children to eat food laced with chemicals that contain names I can hardly pronounce.

Trust me, I’m not exaggerating.

You wouldn’t want your kids eating this either.

My youngest daughter walked into the kitchen, took one look around the counter with the boxes and bags of food I never buy, and asked, “What happened? Where did all of this come from?”

And, it only took her a second to realize what had taken place, “Oh, Daddy must have gone to the store. I love it when he goes to the store!”

“See Mommy,” Jon said, “Look how happy a little junk food makes our kids.”

First of all, whenever my husband calls me “Mommy,” I know it’s because he’s going to say something in a sarcastic manner but wants to appear “user friendly” to our kids. He might fool them, but he isn’t fooling me.

And secondly, by now, he should know that making our kids happy isn’t my number one priority. I’d much rather them be sad healthy eaters.

I’m a little perplexed as to why he doesn’t care. “Let them be kids,” he says. I agree with that. But, why can’t they be kids who eat healthy food?

“We ate it when we were children,” Jon likes to point out.

Only, we didn’t. Food was made very differently back when we were kids. And while I definitely ate my share of junk food, the junk back then didn’t contain all the chemicals it does today.

My daughter reached into the pile of food that was on the counter and pulled out a package of cookies. She ate four in a row, reached for a fifth, and said, “These are so good, can you please buy these Mom?”

“Sure I said,” not wanting to ruin the mood, but I know the truth. There’s no way in hell I’ll ever buy that.

Find meaning each day,

Dara