Bad Parenting?

Given my short cooking marathon last night, I have decided to take the day off (mostly) from cooking. The kids have eaten eggs and toast for breakfast, peanut butter and jelly with peaches and cheese slices for lunch, and for supper I decided on polish sausage and tator tots (the little bit left over from John's dish) with carrot sticks. I asked Hayden if that sounded yummy for supper. His response, "Can we please have hotdogs?" I told him we were having polish sausage which was like hotdogs only a little bit bigger and yummier. "Please mom?....hotdogs?" Knowing we did have a couple small packages of John Morrell hotdogs in the freezer - I have NO idea where they came from as I refuse to spend money on mystery meat - I caved and made a package of each (homemade polish links and John Morrell mystery meat). Mind you, this WAS against my better judgement. But I thought, "Why not? He asked so nicely and what is ONE little hotdog going to do?"

As I'm getting supper ready, I glanced at the ingredients list on the package hoping that I'd find some trace of real food. No chance. The first ingredient listed: mechanically separated pork, chicken, and various meats. Hmmm. I almost gagged just then. But Hayden was so excited and was actually helping me prepare the meal. I couldn't back out.

They both inhaled their hotdogs, barely touched their tator tots, and tried to swallow a bite of carrots. I received requests for more hotdogs but decided to distract them with "special snacks". They finished their meal with a chocolate chip cookie.

20 minutes later Hayden walks into the kitchen with his hand on his tummy, "Mom...my tummy hurts. I have to go potty." Poor kid. A few trips to the potty over then following 2 hours relieved his tummy ache.

Am I a bad parent? Or is John Morrell mystery meats to blame? Hmmm.......

Never again. I pride myself on the fact that MOST of what our children eat is whole foods, homemade, and homegrown. Their little tummies don't stand a chance against the crap the  overly processed mystery foods contain.

Never again.