The food police
Okay, I admit it. I am the Food Police. I am a very picky shopper. I won't buy anything with artificial colors, artificial flavors, high fructose corn syrup or trans fats in it. I try to stay away from pesticides or anything that is not all natural as much as I can. My kids generally don't eat "fruit" snacks, Lucky Charms or colored Goldfish (though the regular ones are a staple in our house).

This rigid philosophy always goes out the window when I have one of my older children with me. (My one year old does not count as she doesn't know all of the temptations of a grocery store yet). Just yesterday I set off to Marsh with my baby and my 4 year old with me. My 4 year old likes to walk and push a kid cart. We were doing just fine until we passed those summer frozen Popsicles that they stick right in the center of the aisle. "Mom can we have these?" I hear from behind me and knowing exactly what he was talking about. I turn around to the cutest face and smile in the world. "Okay," I sigh and keep on walking, silently cursing out those food companies that don't care about anything but a profit.

You get the idea. And so on and so forth, although I did manage to say a firm no to the donuts! By the end of the shopping trip we have Cheetos - and not the Natural kind that I usually buy, though I did manage to convince him to buy baked. Cheetos contain artificial colors and not only are those bad for you, but that orange stuff gets on their hands, clothes and always ends up somewhere in your house. We also purchased some kind of scooby graham snacks (trans fats & high fructose corn syrup) and Gatorades (artificial colors & HFCS).

The lesson here is DON'T TAKE YOUR CHILDREN TO THE STORE WITH YOU! If you can help it, that is. I generally don't, between weekends and preschool, but sometimes it happens. If that stuff is not in our house then they (or I) don't eat as much of it. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to eat some of those darn good Cheetos!