MisConceptions

About a week ago, I opened my facebook messages and started laughing out loud when I read one of them. The message was from a friend asking me for advice/ideas on how to make healthy lunches for my kids' school lunches. Why was I laughing? I was laughing because on this particular day I was planning on taking my children out to lunch. And the reason for taking them to lunch was not because I wanted to spend time with them, although that was definitely a PLUS! But I was taking them to lunch because I didn't make their lunches and because I was too tired to go grociery shoppping that week to make sure I had enough food for their lunches. So on that particular day my kids ate; pizza, root beer, and candy from a vending machine. Not exactly what I would consider a "healthy lunch".

I just thought this was ironic because sometimes we may have misconceptions of others. I try really hard to feed my kids healthy but I know other people who are WAY better at it. I try the best I can but sometimes my kids eat pizza, hamburgers, fast food, candy, or soda. Eating healthy has not always been a priority in our home, in fact for my oldest son and my husband I still don't think it's a priority. But I do the best I can with the resources and the time that I have. It is expensive and time consuming to make healthy meals and snacks. I am not great in the kitchen and so it makes even extra work for me. However, I'll keep trying because it's important to me but I know there will always be room for improvement.

I did give my friend a list of meals, snacks, and resources that I use. However, I don't know if I really gave her any info. that she didn't already have. But this little incident made me feel better. If someone could have a misconception of how "healthy" I feed my family then I am hoping I have misconceptions of others and their "parenting skills". Sometimes we look at other moms and say things like, "she is so patient", "how does she do all of that", "her house is always so clean",  "she always seems so put together", or "where does she get her energy". But then we get to know that mom or meet someone who knows her better and we realize that she is only as superhuman as the next mom. We are all just doing the best we can in whatever circumstances we have been given.