My 5 year old son gave me some helpful advice the other day. Apparently he has been throwing around a problem in his head the past few weeks and has finally settled on the perfect solution.
His suggestion came because my 7 year old daughter bought me a tin of English butter cookies this past Christmas. She had remembered that I mentioned one time how much I love these cookies. She insisted that her Dad drive her to the store so she could purchase some for me.
I am embarrassed to reveal that one night shortly after Christmas I consumed the whole tin of cookies after I tucked all the kids into bed. I really only meant to eat two but they tasted so good and they were just so tiny that I couldn’t get the whole butter cookie experience with just two. In my defense it was a 4oz tin so I think there was only 10 cookies in it….and they were small!
I told my daughter a few days later that I really enjoyed the gift she gave me. I told her I enjoyed it so much that I ate them all in one sitting. We laughed at my lack of self-control.
Apparently, my daughter then went and shared with my son that Mommy was a big pig and ate all her cookies…all by herself….in one crazy eating frenzy moment.
This information obviously put my son into a tailspin trying to come up with a solution. And apparently his weeks of thinking did provide him with the answer because he presented me with this the other day:
“Uh, Mom, I think it would be best that if you ever receive another tin of cookies that you put it in my backpack every morning when I’m on my way to school. The cookies will be safe in there.”
My mouth dropped open and my eyes got huge. My son then put his hand on my arm and said in a sympathetic voice, “I know you get lonely during the day when I’m at school and it makes you want to eat a lot of cookies. This way if the cookies are with me you can’t eat them all.”
I just nodded my head and thanked him but what I really wanted to say was:
- I am really not that lonely when you are at school. I am too busy to be lonely or eat half the time.
- How does a 5 year old know that loneliness and overeating go hand in hand?
- I didn’t even eat the cookies when you were at school. I ate them when you went to bed. Yes, that’s right…Mommy really lives it up when you go to bed! I eat all kinds of good stuff as soon as you guys are all tucked in for the night!
My tin of cookies from Iris proudly on display in my laundry room!
Motherhood Is An Art 