Caught With A Spoon In Our Hands (Confessions Of Ice Cream Hiders)

 

We weren’t always this way.

No.

We never wanted to turn selfish.  Never had the need to go down this path.  The ice cream would sit boldly in the freezer without need to hide behind frozen meat. When we opened the freezer, the Cookie Dough ice cream container would greet us, just begging us to eat it.

Then we had children.

When the children were young, we still didn’t have a need to hide the ice cream.  I would buy it at the store and whichever child was with me shopping, would typically forget I bought it.

“Mom! We are getting ice cream! Yum!”

Then they would forget when we got home. They were too young to open the freezer.  My children are growing up.  Not only do the older ones remember we bought ice cream in the first place, they open the freezer and scan the contents.

Thus, the need for hiding.

Do you know how fast a 1.5 quart of ice cream disappears when you have four hungry kids?  One meal and we can see the bottom of the container!  They’re animals I tell you!  Shouldn’t we share the ice cream?  What kind of parents are we if we don’t share ice cream?

We are parents desperate to keep something for ourselves.

In the almost 12 years of being a parent I have shared with our children:

The early morning hours

The nighttime hours

My meal

The last piece of pie

My bed

My bathroom

My treadmill time (how many times do I hop off to help someone??)

My glass of water

My chair (it always looks more comfortable then the one they are sitting on)

My money

My clothes

My time

The bagels (a package of 6 and 4 children-need I say more?)

The list can go on and on and on.  So if we want to hide ice cream, I say we have a right.

We won’t feel guilty when we stuff the 1.5 quart container behind the frozen hamburger and under the bunny ice pack.  We won’t feel guilty when we are eating the ice cream and a child who is supposed to be in bed walks into the room so we hurriedly hide the ice cream under a blanket.  We won’t feel guilty when we bury the empty container in the trash.  No, we have a right.  A right to eat ice cream in peace.  A right to not share.  Because someday, they will look behind the freezer-burned hamburger.  Hopefully it won’t be someday soon.