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If you’re new around here, confessions are a time for us to all unburden ourselves of the silliness we’re feeling at the moment.
I share dumb things, then you share dumb things, and we all have a better day because of it. Let’s get started!
CONFESSION 1
No one in our house really drinks milk. Jack is lactose-intolerant, Troy was but grew out of it but still never drinks milk, Bennett doesn’t care, and I got out of the practice when I was dairy-free while nursing Jack.
But, anytime the boys would go over to my inlaw’s house, Bennett would come home begging for a glass of milk. And every single time he would make a face and tell me that our milk wasn’t as good as the milk that Grammy buys.
It was a few years before I realized why our milk wasn’t up to par. Imagine my surprise when Bennett asked my mother-in-law for milk one day, and I watched her pour him an entire glass of half-and-half. Um, yes, that is much more delicious than our milk!
CONFESSION 2
I don’t understand using face wipes as a daily practice. You know, the ones that remove makeup?
First, these are expensive. Second, they just get tossed into the trash; that seems so wasteful! <–I understand using them for camping or being on the go, but for daily use?
Were we not washing our faces and drying them on a bath towel for hundreds of years? Was that not ok?
CONFESSION 3
Back in July, I went to my in-law’s house at the beach for a few wonderful solo days. Troy brought the boys midweek and we had a nice family vacation. I drove our Nissan Leaf EV, and Troy and the boys came in my Subaru.
It will surprise no one to find out that I’m pretty meticulous about keeping a clean car. I do not understand people who allow their cars to become trash pits. You have to ride in that thing. Is it really that hard to remove garbage from it when you get out?
The day after they got to the beach, I had to get something out of the Subaru and opened the front seat and actually gasped. Y’all, it looked like Troy had been driving down a bumpy road while trying to open a container of goldfish flakes. There were crumbs EVERYWHERE.
I asked him what on earth he had been eating in my car, and I swear he told me (with a straight face) that he had eaten a baguette sandwich AND A CHURRO while driving the boys to the ocean.
Famously, neither food is known for being great on a road trip.
Confession 4
During the first few years of the pandemic, school lunch was free for all children in the US. When schools were completely closed down, many districts offered grab-and-go meals at schools and some even delivered them via school bus.
Last year was the first year of mostly normal schooling in our district. Kids were in the classroom for the entire year and school lunch and breakfast were free for all students, not just those who qualified based on income.
I cannot understate how lovely this was. One, kids learn better when they are fed, and many kids who qualify for free or reduced lunch don’t actually get it because of the stigma surrounding school lunch.
To me, school lunch vs bringing it from home is the same as breastfeeding vs formula feeding – FED IS BEST. It doesn’t matter how the food gets into a hungry child’s mouth, just feed them.
Two, not worrying about packing lunches was an absolute DELIGHT. Jack can pack his own, but feeding Bennett is my least favorite task of the day. He cannot make a decision about what he wants, and if you give him something he doesn’t enjoy, he’s perfectly content to just skip a meal.
Sending his little butt to school each day knowing feeding him was the school’s problem was the absolute best. And now that it costs money again, I’m unwilling to pay knowing he’ll only eat about 25% of what is offered.
The boys are allowed to buy lunch once a week now, and our state’s superintendent for public instruction is requesting that our state provide free lunch to all children again starting in 2023. Fed children learn better. My children are also less annoying when I don’t have to decide what to feed them.
Ok, friends, your turn! What do you need to confess? Want more confessions? Read more here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. Or read the whole darn archive here.
I agree about the trashy cars. You’re getting out anyway, pick up after yourself! We have a garage trash can, so that helps bunches.
School lunches might not be appetizing all the time, but a hungry belly needs attention before any learning can take place. The school I recently retired from served both breakfast and lunch, and was free to all kids no matter what the income.
I really do miss the home made rolls the schools used to cook. You know, the ones that you could smell all over the building?
Meals must be much more expensive now! When I was in school, we always had to pay, but it was only 35 cents per meal. Maybe an issue of what they were serving that day – but never a cost issue!
That was then!
This is now:
I am also in favor of free meals – agree they learn better and those who cannot afford should not be subjected to the stigma.
I believe it is $3.75 for middle and high school and $3(ish) for elementary. And breakfast is a bit cheaper than that but I’m not sure of the price.
When I’m walking and thinking intently of something (like walking down the grocery aisle trying to find something), I hold my hands like Mr. Burns from the Simpsons. It’s ridiculous and probably a little creepy to anyone who sees me.
Concentration pose!
My kids ratted me out to the pediatrician about our lack of milk consumption so we’re now taking the calcium supplements I should probably have been taking for years.
My mom always gives my husband car wash gift certificates for Christmas and back when my kids were in car seats and I drove a minivan, the manager of the car wash actually called workers over SEVERAL times to share his disbelief at how clean the inside of my van was. It’s still a rare occasion when I let my kids eat in the car and the youngest one is about to turn 12.
I am so sad that school lunches aren’t free anymore! All three of my daughters make their own lunches but I still have to remember to buy all the lunch foods and nag them most nights to just get it done!
Ohhh, I hope you told that snitches get stitches. 🙂
One of my greatest compliments ever as a mom was when someone got into my car and said “if it wasn’t for the car seat, I wouldn’t have known you had kids”. I know you feel that.
Yep, school lunches for everyone, every day. That’s my motto.
I laughed so hard at the glass of half and half! My grandma used to always get extra creamers at McDonald’s and save them for us grandkids because we LOVED it but she never poured us a whole glass! She did always buy whole milk which was way way better than the skim my parents bought.
At some point in college I worked in a parking garage and this man pulled up in a small sedan that was FILLED with McDonald’s bags. Like the entire back floorboard and seat, up to the windows and the entire passenger floorboard and seat up to the window! And I swear it was all McDonald’s bags, no other fast food place. And they were very compactly crumbled bags! I don’t know how I kept a straight face during our transaction but I so badly wanted to ask him when was the last time he cleaned out his car.
You hit home, Bernie! My Grandmother always bought extra rich milk and ice cream! Grandma knew best, right?
My car is NOT clean – but is the outside, not the inside. The inside I take car of. The outside gets washed at least twice a year whether it needs it or not – usually because I leave it out when it rains.
I always have this thought for people who don’t wash their cars often – if you have a backup camera, do you clean that lens off more frequently? After a few days of rain and road dirt, my back up camera gets hard to see!
I definitely laughed when I figured it out too. Both of my boys have very low BMIs (and I know that the history of that score is super problematic) and can definitely afford a few extra pounds from drinking half-and-half.
Oh my gosh, that car! I’m not sure how you got through that AND it must have smelled soooooo much in there.
In our school district in Northern Colorado, they are offering free breakfast and lunch meals this year for all the kiddos like they did during COVID. I told my oldest who is a freshman in high school, and he was like YES!! So I 💯 don’t need to worry about feeding that kid. It’s just my youngest now in 7th grade. And she’s a hella picky eater. She usually packs homemade “lunchables,” with Triscuits, sliced pepperoni and cheese.
I hope we do that next year, it’s sooooo nice!
We tried the homemade Lunchables with Bennett but the little weirdo doesn’t really like cheese. We have settled on hummus and pita, but one day he ate so much hummus he got sent home the next day with a stomachache. Once we figured out what caused it…we had to restrict the hummus consumption. HA!
1. At my Kroger (as at all Krogers, I suppose) there’s a Starbucks kiosk, right around the corner after you go through the entrance. Now, there are signs on the entrance saying “ENTRANCE ONLY” and there is another door, just a little walk down the store, that says EXIT ONLY.
Naturally, the people seeking their giant sugar coffee drinks go through the doors saying ENTRANCE ONLY and then instead of trotting just a leeeetle farther to go out the EXIT ONLY doors, take advantage of the stupid automatic doors that don’t differentiate and just barrel out the ENTRANCE ONLY doors, nearly running into shoppers on their way out to their cars.
It peeves me because most of them are spending nearly 6 bucks on a sugary coffee drink (stupid) and being inconsiderate to the desired traffic flow in the store (rude). Also, the last time I checked just a plain cup of coffee at Starbucks is nearly 4 bucks. WHO WANTS TO PAY THAT?
2. Hikers with dogs, the reason my kids and I are getting off the trail to let you go by is that my kids are a) highly allergic to dogs and b) afraid of dogs. Please don’t insist that we go ahead and walk near your dogs, and also don’t insist that your dogs are “so friendly!” “Doesn’t bite!” Just accept that some people don’t want to be near dogs, full stop. It is not a judgement on your ability to train your dog, or on what kind of dog owner you are.
Oh, and also, PICK UP YOUR DOG’S POOP ON THE TRAIL. For the love of God. If you didn’t want to have to carry around a plastic bag of warm feces you shouldn’t have gotten a dog.
I see the baggies of poop all tied off, everywhere! They pick it up but never threw it away? So confusing.
Oh, we used to see those baggies right by our sidewalk in our old neighborhood. Some people would leave them by the sewer, I guess hoping the rain would wash them down? Gross. Sometimes I think they would bag it up and then think, “I don’t want to carry this on the rest of the walk, I’ll pick it up on the way back,” but they didn’t.
But no, on the trails people just leave the poop RIGHT. THERE, on the side of the trail, not in a bag, so if you’re not careful you might step in it. Gross. That is why I love state nature reserves that do not allow pets. Love.
My girls (10th and 12th grade) are cooking and packing lunches for themselves again. Oh, the cooking fights that are happening in my kitchen on Sunday night as they prep what they want to eat for the week. Like you I told them I am willing to purchase one meal a week. If they eat school lunch fine, if not they get to keep the money at the end of the year.
I love that idea!
My parents had a similar agreement with us, but instead of keeping the money they told us that they would buy WHATEVER we wanted for lunches. Believe me when I tell you I was the only kid in 10th grade who was rocking a turkey sandwich with Havarti dill and dijon on multi-grain bread. HA!
I enjoyed your post! You are right , we all have things we would like to vent or rant about. I went dairy free about 2 years ago and don’t miss milk at all (of course I do use some almond milk). I must confess that my car is a mess-not with food – but with extras such as a sweater, a towel, a magazine, ok there is some food- I’m going down to clean it right now!!! Have a good day!
Have you tried oat milk? We have messed around with almond milk a few times but the texture just wasn’t enough for me with replacing real milk in things. Extra creamy oat milk has been a great switch when I need something creamy for cooking.