Pecked by Ducks

I am on the “teacher’s appreciation lunch” evite list at Max’s school. Which means that once a month I am asked to bring something tasty to school usually conforming to some sort of theme. Hey, these ladies are awesome! They love and take care of my precious baby boy. I am happy to make something delish and take it over to them once a month.

This time I made oatmeal raisin cookies. I am not sure how I ended up on dessert duty, but I am totally not complaining. I do however usually forget that I have promised to bring something (thank goodness for google calendar alerts) so long story short, the cookies were still hot when I showed up with them.

This is not a bad thing either, because frankly who is going to complain about still hot from the oven, baked from scratch cookies, except maybe to wish for some ice cold milk.

So I walked in and all the teachers (I was a wee bit late, but that’s okay, because a) they hadn’t started eating yet and b) I was bringing dessert so even if they had, it wasn’t a huge deal) turned to look and sniff appreciatively at me. I smiled and apologized for being late but commented about how at least the cookies were still hot and put them down on the table and tried to hustle myself out of there.

Then it happened.

The “should” appeared. One of the teachers said “Oh they smell so wonderful, and I love hot cookies, but I haven’t eaten yet and I really shouldn’t.”

I kept going (needing to escape, as I don’t much like interrupting or having people look at me) but it got the rant going in my head. Basically if you tell me I should or shouldn’t do something, based on some random, collective, herd mentality, it is going to make me want to do exactly the opposite. I am a grown woman, I can choose for instance what I want to eat and how healthy my diet is and if you present me with say, a hot cookie, I am pretty sure I can eat it and still choose to have a good lunch.

Now my kids on the other hand, I’ll admit, I ask them to finish their veggies or protein before they get more of the desired item on their plate and we don’t do dessert in our house except for special occasions, but I am not 5. And this whole “should” thing is just random guilt bandied about by others to try and conform me to their way of things. If I choose to not eat dessert first or choose to eat healthy things because it makes me feel better so be it, but if I want to eat ice cream for breakfast I going to eat the freakin’ ice cream.

Humpfh.

P.S. Wondering where that came from. Apparently I had some feelings on the subject and the BA in psychology in me is wondering what the larger trigger was, but am having no idea. Maybe I just like how these random rants keep me entertained while driving home.