The Curse of the Cheerio

I'm sure you have all had those moments when you have said, "my children will NEVER do that." Well, that is how I have always felt about cheerios. Riding in some mom's minivan with old cheerios hidden between all the cracks, cheerios stuck to sticky spills in the cup holder, cheerios crunching underfoot as I sat down, I vowed I would never be one of "those moms" who lived in a filth of cheerio remains.

I think I have become one of those moms. The good part is that cheerios have not yet made way to my car. However, my kitchen has been taken over. My daughter loves cheerios. She doesn't just like to eat them: she enjoys banging on her highchair tray and watching them fly onto the floor, she smiles at me while she grabs a fistful and tosses them over the edge, she thinks it's hilarious to fill her mouth and then laugh at something funny, sending soggy cheerio bits spraying everywhere. She especially likes to eat them off of the floor.

I do my best to contain the mess. I pick them off of the floor several times a day and I wipe down her high chair every few days, but invariably I find the remains of a cheerio ground into the carpet, hidden in some unlikely place, or stuck in my daughter's hair. Yesterday I even found one in my purse.

While a cheerio takeover is definitely gross and exasperating, the real issue for me is this: I always thought I would be one of those easygoing moms that let nothing phase them. I am finding, though, that I am becoming more uptight than I ever thought I would be. My roommate in college, Kathleen, and I would always joke that when we had kids, my kids would be the ones running around naked while her kids would be spotless in cute Gap Kids clothes. We talked yesterday on the phone and realized that we have reversed rolls: it drives me crazy when my daughter's face and clothes are dirty and we are off our schedule and she has become a baby-wearing, living in Seattle without a car, riding the bus everywhere mom.

I think that the longer I am a mom and the more kids I have, I will probably go back to my old hippy-granola ways and stop letting the messes, the sheduling upsets, and the cheerios ground into the carpet bother me. I may even let my kids eat cheerios in the car someday! For now, though, I am doing my best at figuring this whole mom thing out and loving every precious moment of it.