I am so done with sugar. My children are good kids, I know, I’ve seen them be so good and so sweet. They deserve a treat, right? Wrong. Whenever I give them sugar, their happy well-behaved demeanors dissolve into screaming, defiant, dictators who have no manners or respect. From having an ice cream cone, I was screamed at, things were thrown at me, and I was slapped in anger.
From a gingerbread house piece, and a candy cane, I was given the worst bedtime fit that exhausted all of us. (That, and being out past bedtime.)
From not giving a hardened chunk of brown sugar in their oatmeal, I’ve been spat upon and screamed at.
And yet I make the same mistake over and over again.
Why do I think that a good day will get better with the addition of sugar? Experience has shown again and again that it only makes things worse! There is no higher point that sugar has gotten us to!
It leads to crashing kids who lose the equivalent of two years of emotional regulation, resulting in a fit that exhausts both child and parent.
No more treats of sugar.
I want to treat my kids to fun. Real, true fun. Climbing trees, hiking, making mud pies, growing a garden, playing barefoot in the sand. I want to go on trips and feel good after a full day of exploring! I want to relax into staying in one place for 5 days without worrying about if we are missing something outside our own family.
I want to become a family that runs and plays together, not that treats ourself with foods that anger us, but that treat our hearts and memories with sweetness in relationships.
My kids may feel like they’re missing out sometimes, but when they look back at their childhood, they’re going to thank me for having a tight reign on their sugar intake and for noticing how sugar effects them.
My mom had a tight reign on sugar. I always thought it was for my sister’s sake and supporting how she needed to eat as a diabetic. But it was for my family’s sake. My mom’s sake. For the sake of having kids who could play and not scream. To have respectful kids with lengthy attention spans. To not be losing her kids to a sugar-monster who took no notice of anybody.
That’s why she had tight reigns.
That is why I’m tightening mine.
So I’m done making excuses. This is my children’s childhood, where they will either remember the good times or the hard times, but they likely won’t remember the food.
In the long run, sugar may not matter so much. But for now, sugar is a controlled substance.
I wouldn’t trust my kids with a knife, a car, or a weapon, so why should I regularly trust them with sugar – which I know results in defiant children who have no operating regulatory systems?
I’d rather take the disappointment than tax their systems and we all pay for it.
So, sugar, I’m watching you. I’m not giving you an inch: I’m taking back a mile. I’m taking back the reigns for my family’s health and well-being, and you are not invited.
“Would you like your apple whole, or sliced?”