Hats off to you with Families!

[sraebaer]

OK, I'm always the one to say this sleeve journey was the easiest thing I have ever done. The last few weeks I found out what may be the reason.

We are watching our 3 grandchildren for a while, and life has turned upside down! It's typically just hubby and I with only healthy food in our house. Healthy dinners, always our "rule of two," a protein and veggie.

Now we have fussy kids and our dinners have been pizza, tacos, basically crap. They have chips and cookies and brownies. (Very picky eaters, they refuse to eat fruit or veggies). I'm buying stuff I never bought in my life like Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Eggos. I am basically a short order cook because everyone wants something different. (I didn't raise my kids this way, they ate healthy food and we all had the same thing for meals.)

So if you have a family, I admire you for sticking with this new lifestyle. It has to be much more difficult than my way!

[Christie13]

I had to giggle a bit about this because although my kids are a bit older I totally get it. They all want something different. The good thing is I have foods that I make in the instant pot that are pretty healthy that they'll eat. But we do always have cookies, chips, and other shit foods in the house because I have kids. Hahahaha. The struggle is real.

[Stacey03]

Nightmare! Kids are soooooo tricky! I know you will be having lots of fun too! :-)

[Juanita62]

OMG! I totally just went through this. Our 16, 14 and 9 year old grandkids were here for a week then my son, his wife and 8 year old grand daughter and 14 month old grandson were all here for another week. It was just like you said....pizza, tacos, spaghetti! It's hard to feed that many people without taking out a loan. They left Monday, so I need to get back on track! Haven't had time to get to the store yet.

[sraebaer]

It was lots of fun, exhausting but fun. They leave Sunday and the can take all their junk food with them!

[AnnieG]

Wow, Sharon, just wow! I can handle the granddaughters overnight, if their mom and an aunt are with them! They go back & forth between their mom's, where there are rules and limitations, healthy meals and bedtimes to their father's, where it is chaos, catch-as-catch-can soda & sugar every meal and no accountability. I am not certain, unless there was a crisis, that we could handle them a week!

You are awesome!

[sraebaer]

Well after a week I have officially lost it. Last night I had mom over for dinner along with my son and three kids. Was in such chaos I washed my phone with my mom's laundry. $250. Then this morning I put a plastic plate on my ceramic stovetop with eggs and have been working on that for hours now. Not to mention 4 beds to wash sheets and towels. Oh, and the mess of crumbs and food/drinks all over the house. (The rule was food in the kitchen only). I need a walk, but can't find my earbuds. The kids and son are on their way home.

Anyone who says Southerners have great manners has not met my grandkids. They won't eat anything and when you make what they want, they tell you it is disgusting. I couldn't even make scrambled eggs right. I was taught to sit at the table, try a bite of everything, and then say "no thank you" if I didn't like it. One kid refused to even join us at the table for dinner with Great Grandma and dad did nothing about it. OK, rant officially over! Not my kids.

[KiwiGal]

Lordy! You will be welcoming the rest and peace.
We have one 6 year old grandson who thankfully is very well behaved (most of the time) and his parents are quite strict about his meals.
There is quite a lot of leeway when he is at "Poppas" house though. Yes, he gets totally spoilt at ours. I figure that he will be the one deciding on our rest home care one day so I'm priming him up now with treats and will remind him of this in years to come lol!

[Stacey03]

Well after a week I have officially lost it. Last night I had mom over for dinner along with my son and three kids. Was in such chaos I washed my phone with my mom's laundry. $250. Then this morning I put a plastic plate on my ceramic stovetop with eggs and have been working on that for hours now. Not to mention 4 beds to wash sheets and towels. Oh, and the mess of crumbs and food/drinks all over the house. (The rule was food in the kitchen only). I need a walk, but can't find my earbuds. The kids and son are on their way home.

Anyone who says Southerners have great manners has not met my grandkids. They won't eat anything and when you make what they want, they tell you it is disgusting. I couldn't even make scrambled eggs right. I was taught to sit at the table, try a bite of everything, and then say "no thank you" if I didn't like it. One kid refused to even join us at the table for dinner with Great Grandma and dad did nothing about it. OK, rant officially over! Not my kids.

GAWD!!! But the relief now they are gone! Hurrah!!!! Get yo self to the fishmongers Sraebaur and then buy some sort of essential oil calming candle, get the cleaners in and then have a soak in a big bath!!!! Lordy, I was exhausted just reading this!!! :-)

[jackalope81]

I have a two and four year old. Food isn't really hard since I was already used to not eating the same things as them. The tough part is post op them climbing on you or wanting to get picked up. They both like to sit in my lap which daughter does fine with understanding tummy is off limits. Son being just 2 has no such understanding. Get an occasional lean slap or punch by hand or errant toy. I went back to work a week post op since it was more restful.

Bonus was I did reverse psychology my daughter into wanting sugar free Popsicles since I told her they were my special treat. Extra special bonus is since her favorite color is purple she eats those now with me and I hate the grape ones.

[Ann2]

What sraebaer said -- hats off to you who are raising children or even grandchildren. I know how hard that must be.

Respect!

[GlennA18]

My wife's kids are more difficult than my son. I say kids, but they're 16, 18 & 22.
I've made it very clear that any junk food in the house either gets locked in a case I bought for junk food, or i throw it away immediately. For the most part, they've locked it up. But I won't bat an eye to throw junk food away.

Mealtime may be more difficult, but junk food at least I've got somewhat of a handle on.

[tripletdadof5]

We're more cheap than health conscious, so no soft drinks or junk food in the house. Our four kids (one is seven, three are almost six) drink mostly water, some milk, and think that orange juice is a treat. No crappy, sugar bomb cereals either. They are excited when they get multi-grain Cheerios.

[Dutchie]

I applaud you!
You definitely have more patience then I have...
Well, the house is yours again now!