Parenting Blunders, Sigh

A picture of me reading a book on raising kids the Easter bunny left me/I could not help but buying. Oh the things parenting books do not bother to go over, because the author assumes some things are obvious! Phuff, silly book.

At one point, in all my mommy brilliance, I decided it would be cute to claim that a fairy sprinkled dust on a snack of fruit I was putting out for my toddlers. In reality I had sprinkled some cane sugar on strawberries for the kids. Toddlers are so young and cute and willing to believe that a fairy really did fly in. For me, apparently, this is too tempting and… fun, right? I had this wonderful image of Tinker Bell coming in and leaving some magic on a tasty treat for the kids.

This became a sensation, and at first I felt a true sense of parenting accomplishment. That special type of accomplishment we mommies get when we felt we have inspired a new family tradition. A tradition these lucky kids will grow up to pass down to their own kids or at least talk loving of to their friends as they get older. Gee, I remember how my mom would pretend that fairies would dust our food with sugar when we were young. Sigh.

Well, years later and my kids ask for “fairy dust” on their fruit. Asking for the sugar is not a problem. I will not always put sugar on their food and they are good about accepting a no. However, as some adults might have gathered already (and those who do not should feel good this has not occurred to them) fairy dust can also be a reference to powdered drugs. And gosh only knows fairy dust sounds a lot like Angel Dust. Cringe. When I first instilled this new tradition I had not started my psychology courses, much less my social welfare course work. I did not think in terms of the abnormal or social deviance... yet.

So now when my kids ask or tell other adults that “mom puts fairy dust on our food!” Instead of gaining a sense of mommy pride, I feel a sense of mommy mortification. I worry that my kids will go to school and bring this up to teachers and I will have social services knocking on my door and I will have to insist, “they MEAN sugar! I swear!”

Of course, I have an overly active imagination and maybe other parents do not raise their eyebrows when my kids giggle over fairy dust. Perhaps this really is an "okay" tradition that will in fact lead to lots of good memories or at least when they are older a lot of good laughs. I can always look forward to that for sure.

In any case the moral of this story is, when you have kids or if you have kids PLEASE think through the cute little traditions you come up with! I wish I had thought that one through a pinch more.