Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Bad Parents


I like to think that Sam and I are involved parents. Above and beyond the basic necessities for our children we try to see that our kids have happy childhoods, which brings me to the "bad" part...

Friday, Owen's preschool was hosting a pot luck costume party. Now, I don't know abut you, but just the idea of 32 runny nosed children and their siblings breathing all over my food sends me running for the Zicam. Nonetheless, I prepared my "main dish" - a new favorite butternut squash recipe I found at Smitten Kitchen.

Galette Galette

As an aside, this is really delicious - this is already the third time I've made this savory galette. I changed it up a bit by substituting Chevre for the Fontina and I used only half of a Vidalia onion rather than a whole onion. Oh yeah, and for the dough, I just put all of the dry ingredients (room temperature) into the food processor and pulsed in the chunks of cold butter and the sour cream and then added the ice cold water; it worked just fine.

Okay, back to how we are horrible parents. Sam left work early because the party started at 6. By the time he got home it was already 6; the kids were dressed and ready to walk out the door. We loaded up and drove 15 minutes across town. We walked in at 6:15, at 6:23 Laney began to peel off her pink poodle costume and by 6:30 we were back in the car and headed to Wendy's dive thru.

Sam and I are different in many ways, but this is not one of them. All it took was the "lets get out of here" look and we grabbed our plates, which, by the way, were already empty, grabbed the kids and left. The room was crowded, children were squealing and screaming, toddlers stripping down to their onesies (ahem), balloons were flying and after the October birthday bonanza, we had had ENOUGH.

We did feel slightly validated when, upon getting in the car, Owen said, "that place was way too loud". Having been plagued with guilt (and hunger), after strapping the dinosaur, giraffe and pink poodle into the car we headed to Wendy's. So there you have it - bad, bad parents depriving our preschooler of a Halloween costume party and clogging his arteries with fast food. Bad I tell you B-A-D.

16 comments:

Janet said...

Heather,
Experience with 4 boys has taught me that when a boy says someplace is too loud, it is best to just flee. Fast food won't kill them as a treat and Wendy's fries are so good!
Janet(aka housepepers.blogspot.com)

Terri Steffes said...

So why am I so proud of you? : )

I think it is because you recognized your children's need to have some peace and quiet for awhile! You were tuned in to your kids' needs, I think that makes you GREAT PARENTS.

kari and kijsa said...

LOL....hilarious....we would have been out of there FOR SURE!!!! Time to go home and watch Survivor!

smiles, kari and kijsa

Unknown said...

NOPE! You aren't bad parents!
You guys have had a lot going on lately, and I think everyone needed some quiet time! Even the kids are agreeing with that, in their own way!

I would not have wanted my kids around others since they are just recovering from being sick themselves. No need for them to catch something else.

You did what you needed to do for yourselves and your family. No feeling bad about that girlie!

And the others are right. Wendy's is so yummy! That was their "treat" for the night! LOL

Anonymous said...

This was so funny. I loved so hard about strapping in all of those critters!

We would be right there with you in the drive-through!

LOL!

Melissa

Julie said...

In the story I read it was the angelic child who wanted to leave what sounded like a version of clostrophic hell to enjoy some quiet time with his amazing loving family!

Nope - no bad parents here.

Aimee said...

Too funny! At least you're BOTH bad parents. It might be kind of complicated if just one of you were. :)

Susie Q said...

I am so proud of you,you wonderful mom!! Even kids need peace and quiet and sometimes, a little fast food!
I think you are an amazing mom and dad. I know that look...the let's out of here fast look! Bill and I have flashed each other that face many times over the last 29 years!
Oh and that dish?? OH wow does that sound great...ooooohhhh.

Hugs,
Sue

Mary said...

Heather, Oh, how funny! I would have been beating feet out of there, too!
xoxo,
Mary

Kari (GrannySkywalker) said...

I'm not sure why you wasted such a fantabulous dish on a bunch of pre-schoolers! Those little beggars can't POSSIBLY appreciate fine food the way forty-something, grumpy, food-loving, menopausal women such as myself can. I'm just saying....

katiedid said...

Bad Parents??? Anything but! After seeing that sunflower cake, and the truck party, You should be up for an award! I remember having birthday parties like this. We had some great ones: Mad Hatter's Tea Party and Wizard of Oz come to mind. Ah...I miss those days. Now it's a shopping spree to the mall.

Birdie said...

Hey you bad parent (lol) I liked that little story. Where abouts do you live in the great lakes state of Michigan?

Anonymous said...

Heather - Oh how I wish I had left the party as quickly as you did! Of course none of my kids really ate anything, and the balloon pummeling ramped up to a very unpleasant fever pitch. Colin and I will have to work on that "Let's get out of here" look. Plus we had 2 more potlucks to attend that weekend, so all I did for 3 days was cook, wrestle my kids into costumes, and clean up from cooking. By Halloween they didn't even care about dressing up anymore! (BTW, why is every gathering a freaking potluck? Doesn't anyone prepare food anymore?)

Love your blog!

Heather B.

Anonymous said...

That was your galette? That was fabulous! (note to Kari who will never see this, being written 5 months later: the great food was for the other parents! :^) I tried making one a few weeks later, with mediocre results. I'm so glad to see your recipe!

Tricia

Anonymous said...

loud? yeah, that's what happens when 30 children get together and have fun. i wouldn't have taken my child out of there right away... I would have at least allowed him to have a little fun with his friends. and who brings a butternut squash galette to a preschool potluck? sounds to me like you're an overachiever and you smother your kids.

Heather said...

Anonymous,

I think you missed the part of the post were I wrote that the kids were NOT having fun...that is why we left.

Laney began to peel off her pink poodle costume

We did feel slightly validated when, upon getting in the car, Owen said, "that place was way too loud".

The galette was for the parents, not the children.

An overachiever - I'll take that one.

I disagree with you on the smothering comment. I don't know many parents of 3 children ages 6, 4, & 2 plus one on the way that has time to "smother". Even if they are smothered, better that than ignored.