In the midst of New Years Resolutions and everyone’s quest to get fit (including my own) this may sound a bit odd, but we had a happy moment in the kitchen today that I thought I would share.

Let me just say that I am a huge proponent for healthy breakfasts.  I wake up early, before my kids go to school, in order to make a good breakfast to start their day off right.  Even my high school kids who are fully capable of feeding themselves, get a healthy breakfast prepared for them, by me, before they head out the door.  I know some mothers who don’t prepare breakfast for their kids, and some who don’t even wake up to see their kids off to school.  If that works for them, great.  There is a small part of me that would like to sleep in every day and not have to fix breakfast, to be honest.  But I feel like it’s my job as their mother, to provide nutritious meals and see them off to school, because who knows what they will eat at school.  Especially the teenagers. That is important to me, so I do it.

Consistently.

My 8-year-old eats more for breakfast than any other child, in fact, I don’t know how he can eat so much!  He loves breakfast.  He doesn’t only have one thing to eat, like pancakes for example, but at least 3 or 4 things, like pancakes, fried eggs which he calls “flat-n-flippies,” cereal, and leftover soup from dinner!   He is a very active little boy.  So this morning out of the blue, after he finished his flat-n-flippies, he said he really wanted a banana shake.  It caught me by surprise and I replied with “it’s not healthy to have banana shakes for breakfast.”  When his eyes looked at me as if to say “please?”  I thought, oh what the heck.  This boy is such a good eater, what would it hurt to have a banana shake for breakfast, especially if I’m heavy on the banana and light on the ice cream?

But not until I first had the talk with him about this being a RARE occasion, and he shouldn’t plan on shakes for breakfast again.  He happily complied.

It made his day.

….and you know what?  Mine too.

It’s all about the quality of life, in my opinion.  We pray for constant guidance and help in doing what is best for our children, we take care of their physical, spiritual, and emotional needs.

So what does it hurt to have a banana shake for breakfast once in a while, if it makes you happy?

This little boy could use one or two of them anyway, wouldn’t you agree?