Have you ever tried to unwrap a Chupa Chup while your child has a Defcon 1 level meltdown on the supermarket floor?
I have.
See, once upon a time, a lollipop as bribery was my only currency. As a result, I learnt to undo those suckers in under 15 seconds which really, is quite the unrecognised accomplishment.
In fact, my friend recently told me that when her child was younger, she would purchase an entire packet of marshmallows before any shopping expedition and let her daughter consume the entire packet over the duration of the trip so that she got some peace and quiet.
Are either of us proud of the sugar we let our children consume? Well, no, but desperate times etc. I suspect we were both at the time, just trying to keep a lid on our sanity. Just like so many parents.
Just as an FYI, you should know that this series of posts is sponsored by ADA. But all opinions expressed by the author are 100% authentic and written in their own words.
Plus, a sugary sweet was probably the least of our worries. Along with sugar, our ‘little darlings’ were sticking all kinds of things their mouths, lollipops being the least damaging it would seem. After crowdsourcing and a quick whip around of the things that fellow parents had found their children sticking in their mouths, I can pass on to you, the top 10:
1. Cat food
2. Cat poo
3. Sand
4. Bath water
5. Cockroaches
6. Toilet water
7. Bark
8. Ants
9. Leaves
10. Grass
Plus, let’s not discount all those times our children were being cared for by others and we weren’t privy to their gross food intake. Times when we didn’t actually realise that they might perhaps be getting SPOILT rotten.