My kids had recently been addicted to sugary cereals. I’m not sure why we started buying them in the first place. I think it’s because the box showed pictures of endangered species on them and apparently the sugar has less calories if it is taken in conjunction with environmental awareness. I decided that it was time to ween them off this and was mentally prepared for the push back from the kids (“push back” = “screaming and stomping”).
Just before Day Zero of the New World Order, I came up with a flash of brilliance that I thought was worth sharing:
As I was about to serve them the boring crispy rice cereal, I brought out our sugar bowl and excitedly sprinkled a teaspoon into each kid’s bowl in front of them. Can I tell you how excited the kids were at the fact that I, Daddy, the Sugar Nazi, actually sprinkled sugar on something for them. Never mind that their cereal had barely a fraction of the sugar they previously ingested, they were completed excited and never fussed. It was new and exciting and they were content (and I was relieved).
In this situation, I couldn’t have created a better outcome no matter how much I tried to rationalize the health benefits to my kids. Being an engineer, my default is to resort to logic but it was pure marketing and salesmanship that won the day today. Just another little parenting skill for me to continue developing, for the good of us all.