Tuesday, September 9, 2008

In case you didn't feel inadequate enough


You know as mothers we have untold levels of self inflicted guilt. The issues range from was I loving enough?, attentive enough?, disciplined enough?, a good moral role model? etc. Now I can feel guilty because I made 270, 363 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches from 1983 until 1999 while my kids were in elementary school. Made with sugar sweetened, salt adulterated peanut butter and pesticide laced apple or strawberry jelly. And for an extra treat, if cash was flush, I added a high fructose corn syrup sweetened fruit flavored box drink. And the fights that ensued over the last package of single serving cheetos were mammoth. To add to my "Worst Mother of the Year" award, I threw the packaging in the trash without recycling. Now during all those years I was hoping to get them in the car or on the bus with all of their belongings, clean enough uniforms and socks that at least looked like they matched. We won't even mention my glea when it was a "pizza day" fundraiser. Imagine my horror when I stumbled across these art gallery worthy boxed lunches.

They are called Bento. A delightly arranged and boxed lunch common in Japan.

These are from http://www.flickr.com/photos/cuteobento/. She has a blog but I am not very fluent in Japanese. Are these awesome or what? I don't think I could sling these together in 20 seconds flat, throw in a brown paper bag and pitch to the running child as they dash out the door. No wonder those Japanese children are stomping us flat in math and science. Their mothers are slaving over art made into lunch before daybreak. Well just one more thing that my children can tell the therapist when the time comes.

10 comments:

  1. Apple jelly- man I really want some now.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You're too much. Got my knitting today. Looks better than I remember. Love you.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I dropped two stiches and can't figure out how to get them back so I'm at a standstill. I intend to bring it to my class on the 18th in the hopes that the lady will help me. Then I can work on it at our "mountain cabin getaway". It just occured to me that I could have written this in an email but for some reason this seemed easier... probably because I had already started typing and truthfully once I had gotten to the verb I consider that the point of no return...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh my word! And I thought I was being cute taking a cookie cutter and cutting ME's pbj sandwich, grape tomatoes, serving of fruit, serving of yogurt, pretzels or goldfish and a water. I have her buy milk at school.

    And the cookie cutter sandwich thing? Years ago, when ME was in 4K, I bought huge cookie cutters to go with seasons. I was not going to be one of those mothers who wasted her time cutting crust off her child's sandwich. And ME never minded crust on a sandwich until she went to school and none of her friends had crust on their sandwiches. A cooking cutter serves the same purpose, is faster and makes a prettier sandwich. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  5. BTW, your kids turned out just fine and if my one turns out 1/2 as good as yours, then I will have done ok as well.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks Missy, you are too sweet.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Yes, I feel inadequate...my husband cooked his own eggs this morning and my child and her sleepover friend had cereal and milk. Fixing breakfast before 9a.m. is painful to me. :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Ah, the guilt! I know it so well, but thank the Lord our two turned out really well without any major grief. My oldest, now 35, still talks about the day I sent her to lunch with a gourmet sandwich of two toned rye. She said she has never gotten over the teasing over that one! LOL! Did I say she is pretty much a gourmet cook today? If I sit down and think about the guilt/mother thing, oh, my, can I do a job with that one. As far as those Bento sandwiches, well, what the heck are those kids going to expect when they get a little older? fugetabotit!

    ReplyDelete
  9. LOL Cheryl and Bunny. I taught children around here to be self sufficient pretty early on. And the sins of the mothers. What would our kids tell their kids if we didn't commit them.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I need to see if Paige will make lunch for me like that... :)

    ReplyDelete

Welcome, I am so glad you chose to leave a comment. I love getting comments, questions and even just a friendly hello. I may not respond to every comment, but rest assured I read them all. Sometimes the comments and questions fuel new posts. So comment away!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...