[...] Sandy Maple pointed out the other day – if you think putting a bowl of sugary flakes in front of your kids is a good idea, perhaps you have been eating too many of them. So there were [...]

Funny story about my dad as a grandparent: the one (and only, NOT because of this) time we left my older daughter, who was 2 at the time, with him for the weekend, he of course stuffed her full of sugar. Which, okay, grandparents’ prerogative, whatever, but when we came to pick her up, he was all, “She loves these 100 calorie packs of Froot Loops.” I said, “I’m sure she does, Dad, they’re like pure sugar!” He looked at me and said, “But it’s only 100 calories!”

LMAO at the fact I’m not the only one – my MIL gave my (then) nine-month old his own slice of chocolate cake and a glass of diet-Pepsi. And couldn’t figured out WHY I was irritated…”well the chocolate has antidioxiwhatevers and the pop has no calories”. Never mind he was up crawling laps in his crib all night because he handles caffeine like I do (not well).

Well, I’m sure I’m not the only one, but oh yeah, did she ever. She’s still pissy b/c he’s not yet weaned (and over a year…we’re slowly weaning, and yes, he does drink cow’s milk with meals but I’m loathe to cut out the first-in-the-morning and the last-thing-before-bed feedings that he dearly wants) And FWIW, my son’s pedi believes that chocolate is in the “15-18 mo range, no earlier”. So at 9 months, I was pissy. (I have a nasty family history of food allergies and gastro/esophogal/intestinal issues…little dude’s doctor is aware hence most of his recommendations!)

I’m a little late coming to this party, but I couldn’t resist commenting. I knew we would have major problems with my MIL before we ever had kids – because of the dog. Yup, the dog. She adores our dog (calls herself Gramma, refers to the dog as her grandpuppy – yes, one of those people), and used to request quality time with the dog. We went through the ground rules – no people food, no jumping on people, and stay off the furniture unless invited. The first time I went to get the dog after an afternoon, my MIL says “I didn’t give her people food at all. I just cooked up some eggs and steak for her, she had just a teensy handful of M&M’s, I DID let her have some peanut butter crackers while we were watching TV, and I made her a little beef stew to put over her food when I fed her an hour ago.” The dog puked on my pillow that night. Now?!?! Don’t get me started. The MIL started asking when my son was two months old when we were going to start giving him solid foods – because she thinks it would be okay to give him a little ice cream. In the same breath, she informed me that she gives her other grandchild (five months old at the time) vanilla ice cream when she watches her. She said, “It does make her sick, though. Every time she gets a bellyache later, and sometimes she throws it up. But she really likes it while she’s eating it, so I’M GOING TO KEEP GIVING IT TO HER(Emphasis mine- lol).” My son goes to grandma’s house all the time…with me happily at his side. I NEVER leave him there.