It’s a ‘no’ day
posted in Frenzied Daddy |Coming home from dropping Miss B off at school this morning, Miss K was hungry. “Daddy, I hungee.” I told her that I was hungry too and we’d go home and eat; I asked her if she wanted cereal or a sandwich. “A peabutjelly sammich” (she mumbles like I do, damn it!). Sounds good to me- we eat a lot of peabutjelly sammiches. She likes the part where she opens the fridge and takes out the jelly. She’ll even do that when I’m cooking dinner.
“And a pickle.”
I looked back at her and nodded.
“And shicken.”
I looked in the rear view mirror and she smiled back at me. “We don’t have any chicken.”
And then the slyest, craftiest, coyest voice- the Coyotiest, the Ravenest, the Lokiest voice came from the back seat…. “McDonnas has Shicken”
Uh, no, we didn’t get chicken, or McDonald’s. Dang.
Similarily, Miss B had a hard lesson this morning. She lay in bed until we had to leave, being “tired” and whining that she was hungry (what is it about feeding these kids?! Do I have to do it every day?! Sheesh!) Finally, just before I stormed her bedroom, ripped the bedclothes from on top of her and wrestled her into the car while she was wearing her pajamas, she announced that she wanted Starbucks. Are my kids deprived? Maybe. But I had to break it to her- laying in bed until we’re late for school isn’t going to get her any cinnamon rolls and hot cocoa. (Thank heavens she hasn’t discovered the strawberry creme frappachinos yet, eh?). She was up, and surly, but she got to school. On time.
And on the way home… Are you sensing a pattern yet? My deprived Miss B informed me that she wanted Mio Gelato… She was starving for Mio Gelato. Ok; it was freaking gorgeous out; a high around 65 degrees (farenheit, duh), I could understand wanting ice cream, and Mio Gelato is pretty tasty. I said “no.” Because it’s a ‘no’ day. Seriously, because I had just plunked a check into our checking account, we had been overdrawn and I knew I had to send most of the check to a creditor, and I just didn’t feel like spending that money. She repeated herself and then she said “If I don’t have Mio Gelato, I’ll starve to dea–urk.” Cute kid. 
But I didn’t tell her that. In fact, I said “no,” and that “I didn’t want to.” … And because I usually feel like I’m about 25 and not the 38 I’ll be on Monday, I teased her about it, and tried to keep it light. And because I tend to treat my daughters as … friends that I can tease rather than daughters, kids who need me to give it to them straight, and who need to believe that I’ll always be safe for them, I continued to tease her until she asked me to stop.
Which really should be another post, a completely different topic. On how my teasing the girls could be hurting our relationship.
What do you think? How honest should I have been with Miss B? And what do I do about all their asking to eat out?
