When I was little, my mum would come back from her weekly grocery shopping trips with a treat! It was always a chocolate bar, a packet or lollies or something as equally sweet and tempting. Now, before you all email me, telling me about the issues of food rewards and obesity etc - which I'm well aware of - I have to say that these little treats are still remembered with great fondness. Her theory was that if she had to suffer that painful experience of grocery shopping, then we all deserved a little celebration for it!
As an adult, I still use that whole theory. Sometimes, we just need to reward ourselves! And while I generally (and genuinely) do try to avoid rewarding with food treats, there are still times when a tasty morsel of something that I wouldn't usually buy just happens to find its way into my shopping trolley.
Last week, I found myself emulating my mother's practice!
It had been a long week....and was coming to the end of a long school holiday. After weeks...no, months!....of listening to children play (loudly), fight (loudly), demand (loudly!) and do the usual kid things and being in a grump with Dear Husband who was avoiding mowing the incredibly long lawn (still waiting for that one, btw!), I headed off to grocery shopping!
Now, grocery shopping is something that I am no fan of. So, I guess it was not unexpected that when I saw one of my very favourite fruits just sitting on the shelf and looking appealingly at me, I threw a few handfuls into a bag and whizzed them through the checkout!
And I guess it comes as no surprise then that despite ice-cream and other assorted foods melting in the car boot, I sat in my car in the car park and devoured that little packet of lychees while enjoying the absolute silence of my own company....a pretty rare experience round here!
Do I feel guilty? You betcha! But sometimes, for the sake of a mother's pure sanity, we have to make the most of the little opportunities that we afford ourselves! And in the end, I came home a calmer and happier mother who began enjoying her family all over again!!!!
Image courtesy of Luc Viatour; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Litchi_chinensis_Luc_Viatour.jpg
