I swore I’d never be THAT Mom!

It’s real easy to judge other Moms before you become one. I remember watching friends feed their kids hot dogs and macaroni and cheese and secretly thinking “Not my kids!” Whenever I’d see kids in minivans glued to mini DVD screens, I made a promise to myself that we’d be singing campfire songs in the car and discussing photosynthesis. Kids dressed from head to toe in Barney, Big Bird or any other commercial cartoon character was enough to make me vomit. Of course, the mother that gets the most glares is the one with the hysterical child pulling every box of sugar-coated cereal off the shelf and screaming until they’re red in the face (or their mother is). It’s almost a sport in our society to judge other Moms from afar and has made TV shows like Super Nanny and Nanny 911 instant hits. Sometimes easy to do, as in the case of Madlyn Primoff who perhaps needed to call Nanny 911 before she checked her kids at the curb, it isn’t until we’re in the midst of motherhood ourselves that we begin to understand who really is in charge. There is no negotiating with a two-year old. They are the Osama Bin Ladens of the “crumb-crunchers.”

So it is without shame that I admit to feeding Reagan Spaghetti-O’s and American cheese slices multiple times a week just to be sure she eats something besides Play-doh and the occasional multi-colored Goldfish she finds under the couch. I confess to loading up on Dora the Explorer DVDs for car rides that will last more than half an hour. And when she insists on wearing her Pooh, Dora and Elmo shirts all day, every day and all at the same time, I decide there are more important battles to wage until I can make it to the store to buy more cartoon-charactered clothing to last her at least a week. And, hey, who says Cheetos aren’t one of the four food groups?