Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets...

absolutely broke my heart today. To tell the truth I can't even think about them without tearing up. Why, you ask, did fused chicken make me weep? Well I'll tell you. When I went to pick up Bowen today his teacher told me he'd been a little upset today when he had eaten his chicken nuggets and no body could give him more, he didn't want his broccoli (duh), he had eaten his peaches but he could only have three (?!) nuggets because that is the rule of portion for his age in the cafeteria. Well. I went down to the directors office, not mad, just wanting to find out why he couldn't have more if he wanted, I mean I pay for his food, give him more! ( A little aside here to explain: I can't bear thinking of people being hungry, kids, poor people, dogs, Jonathan, especially kids, and really especially my kids. I think it stems from Laine as a newborn not getting enough milk at first and having to supplement and pump to get her to gain weight, that girl sucked on her hands and cried and cried and there was nothing I could give her because my boobs were SO full of milk none would come out.) Anyway, I asked what had happened, she said blah blah three nuggets, I said that's not enough for him, and I started crying. She said she was trying to see if things could be changed, I knew I couldn't stop crying, I told her that I was really sad and that I needed to leave and I walked out of the office. Awesomely enough while I was waling to the car, I saw a teacher from my old school and couldn't talk and I saw a student from my new school with her mother and she was asking me questions and all I could say was you've really caught me at a bad time and walk away, tears coming down my face. All I could think of was that my baby was hungry and no one would help him. Is that REALLY what happened, no, those girls love Bowen so much, they gave him everything he wanted except the stupid chicken nuggets. Stupid cafeteria rule. It's so much more that nuggets, it's doubting my working outside the home (I could have given him all the nuggets he wanted if we were at home), it's doubting my decision to buy his lunch instead of making it like 3/4 of the other moms do for their kids in his class. AND, they bring snacks for them too, the learning center provides a snack free of charge, and I'm thinking heck yeah, something I don;t have to pay for! And Bowen is sad because he has to eat apple sauce while the other kids eat their yummy snacks from home, what a beating, at least mentally for me, PEER PRESSURE. I rarely doubt myself, I rarely cry in public, I rarely let myself feel inferior to other moms, but today I did. Today I cried like a baby over three chicken nuggets and I can't seem to shake it.

Later in the afternoon the director called me, I was still crying. She is one of the sweetest people I know. She made me feel better, she told me she was working with Food Services to get things changed. She even cried with me a little while we were taking about how hard it is to worry about your child when they are away from you. I can't decide. Do I start making his lunch? Do I just send some extra food for back-up? Do I just follow up and make sure he's getting enough from the cafeteria?

I'll get some first day of school pictures up soon.

4 comments:

Shauna said...

I had a school break down today too..will have to post about it later!
Hope you have recovered!

Leslie said...

That's so sad! I think it's crazy that they won't give kids more food if they want it. You are a wonderful mom! I really hope you are feeling better about this. You're doing a great job. I can't wait to see you this weekend too!

29again said...

I had a similar experience when my son was in elementary. I worked at the school and would often go sit with him at lunch. I always noticed that most of the kids ate next to nothing and all the food was wasted....so I guess that is the reason for the rule...but my son, always ate everything unless it was something he hated. They wouldn't let him have more either! Landry also has low blood sugar and if he didn't get enough to eat he would get headaches and get super grumpy! No one cared! It was so frustrating. I just tried to watch the menu and pack his lunch on days I knew there wasn't enough stuff he liked. Then they would change the menu and it wouldn't be what it said it was going to be. GRRRR! I even told them I would pay for two lunches and they still said no and I worked there! I was really pissed and when I get pissed I start crying too! Not the most effective anger strategy! Try not to question yourself too much. I don't even know you and I can tell from your blog you are a great mom. Sometimes this mommy business is just so hard!

Anonymous said...

Larae is right, sometimes being a mommy is hard. I think I remember you telling someone that recently. Making lunch is a pain in the patooty but if it makes him happy you might have to do it a couple of days a week. What kind of snacks are those stupid mothers sending? Applesauce is a great snack. Bowen, I'm gonna buy you a chicken and send it to school with you.