The Hammer won’t eat anything.
For a while, we thought we had him with pieorogies, and pizza, and pancakes, but he soon abandoned his alliteration-based preferences and embarked on a hunger strike. Cooking food for him quickly became a chore when all he wanted was his bottle of milk.
He loves his snacks, though, and despite the fact that he has occasionally procured a potato chip or two (second kids FTW!), he mostly munches on Cheerios. And thank god, because not only does he actually eat them, they don’t require any prep!
I don’t want this blog to become focused on all the things parenting requires you to sacrifice, but if I did go that route, I wouldn’t lack for material.
Your kids steal your energy, your solitude, your money, your sleep, your dignity, even your Netflix; they take everything! Which, in turn, makes every opportunity to regain a bit of those things so precious. Especially your time.
Parents are always looking for balance, and sometimes attaining any semblance of balance requires shortcuts. Some shortcuts are less desirable than others, i.e., using the TV as a babysitter, serving fast food rather than home-cooked meals, letting them skip homework because you’re too tired to help, etc. So when you find a shortcut that both works and won’t corrupt or harm them long-term, you lean on it.
With The Hammer, who pretty much refuses to eat anything and everything Mom and Buried and I dish out, it’s been Cheerios. It’s basically all& the kid will tolerate these days.
Even better, thanks to the #CheeriosChallenge viral sensation that my friends at Life of Dad started last year, Detective Munch likes getting involved too.
Because The Hammer is a sloppy eater, which means at any given moment there are at least two-to-three boxes worth of Cheerios on the floor of our house. And if you don’t think big brother doesn’t like finding out how much stuff he can stack on top of little brother, you’re probably an only child. (One time my brother pushed an entire armoire on top of me and the challenge didn’t even exist back then!)
Every single bit of this is okay with me. Detective Munch wants to pile Cheerios on the toddler? Go for it, kid, so long as you’re both quiet while you do it. The Hammer wants to eat Cheerios and nothing but Cheerios? Good, I’m glad he’s eating something. 
As a parent, you have to take whatever wins you can get, and when your find something that works, you stick with it, even if that means running it into the ground, stepping on it, and leaving crumbs all over the place.
(Sorry. I’ve been doing a lot of sweeping lately.)
Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post on behalf of Life of Dad and Cheerios. I received compensation for this post – much of which is currently in The Hammer’s stomach – however, all opinions stated are my own.
