09/04/2026
Oreo-gate unlocked a parenting memory I had almost forgotten🙊🫣
Years ago, I was basically thatttt mom. I was packing the healthiest little organic lunches for my kindergartener while he watched other kids pull out all the good stuff.
So he took matters into his own hands. He started throwing his lunch in the garbage, telling his teacher he didn’t have one, and getting sent to the office where, conveniently, the emergency snacks were much yummier than anything I was packing😲
A humbling moment for me😆but also a good reminder that sometimes we need to loosen our grip a little. Our kids are going to see other kids with things they don’t have, rules that are different from theirs and choices we wouldn’t necessarily make.
Sometimes that might make us stop and think, K, maybe I can ease up here. And other times, we might decide, nope, this is a boundary I still feel good about.
Either way, the answer isnt making everyone else follow our family’s rules so our kids never have to feel disappointed.
Because today it might be an Oreo. Tomorrow it’s a phone, social media, a later bedtime or whatever else everyone else is apparently allowed to do. Sometimes we advocate for our kids, sometimes we reconsider our own rules, and sometimes we help them deal with hearing no.
And somehow we’ve arrived at a full parenting philosophy because of an Oreo🫠fake or not, it’s made me think …
More on this + four other lessons I’m taking into this school year in this week’s episode:
🎧 Rethinking Back-to-School: 5 Lessons (and Oreo-Gate) on The Juggle is Real.
