I Have to Laugh or I'll Cry
Parenting - Humor
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Life Can be a Variety Box of Pop-Tarts
You know those big boxes of Pop-Tarts? Where you get a few of the frosted cinnamon and brown sugar, a few of the frosted cherry, and a few of the strawberry with no frosting whatsoever? Life can be like that. Some days, some moments, some memories, have the frosting. Others don’t. In my households, both the one I grew up in and the one I am building up now, no one ever wanted to touch those unfrosted Pop-Tarts. They would sit in the cupboard, alone in the box, right next to the regular flavored packets of oatmeal in their own variety box.
When I was a child, there was always a reckoning. Mom wouldn’t buy another box of Pop-Tarts (or oatmeal) until the undesirable ones were consumed. Sometimes, we had to take care of three boxes at a time. Triple the amount of unfrosted Pop-Tarts to choke down. Made me re-think procrastination.
As an adult, I either throw the unwanted pieces away, or refrain from buying the variety pack. Haven’t really considered making my son do what I know I never liked to do when I was his age. However, it occurred to me that perhaps I should.
Sometimes duty is the unfrosted Pop-Tart, sometimes it is honor, or character, or morals, or maybe even defending the weak. We don’t want to do it, but often, we must choke it down and finish the deed, even when it is undesirable to do so.
Life isn’t always full of frosting and titillating experiences that are pleasing and enjoyable. I shouldn’t be suggesting to my son that it is otherwise. I think he’ll be having an unfrosted Pop-Tart tomorrow. I think he’ll be eating it next to me with my bowl of plain oatmeal. We’ll share in the drudgery together, we’ll do what we need to do together, we’ll do what’s right…together.
2 comments from 2 users
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posted by
bushelandapeck
on May 17, 2008 at 12:22 PM
Uh, I've alwasy preferred the no frosting pop tarts - am I weird? And yes, it is good to learn to eat those no frosting pop tarts. Eventually we learn they're not so bad, and some of us learn to like them. posted by
twogirlsmama
on May 15, 2008 at 01:35 AM
Cool analogy. :)
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