The Toy

I took Elodie to McDonald's today, which is something we do a few afternoons a week. She's in kindergarten now, but is only on half days, so is home with me in the afternoons. We often get bored or tired or frustrated being cooped up in the house, so we pack up the knitting and walk a few blocks to McDonald's. I get a diet coke and knit while Elodie plays with the many kids that are always in the play place.

Today, we both saw something that made us both a little sad. There was a little boy that E was playing with. He seemed to be really sweet, and they were having a great time. When his mom said it was time to go, the boy was upset that they were leaving. She hauled him into the bathroom. Several minutes later, the boy came out very red faced, like he'd been crying very hard. As they were leaving, she told him to "shut up", and then threw his toy into the garbage.

Now, I do not, by any means, have a clean mouth. In fact, it's usually quite filthy. But there's one thing that I cannot abide, and that's the words "shut up" uttered at another human being. I'll drop the eff word without the slightest hesitation. But telling another person to shut up is demeaning. And a mother telling her child that, her five-year-old child, is absolutely, unquestionably wrong in my books. To me, it's beyond rude. And to tell your child to shut up and then throw away one of their possessions is awful.

I am totally scarred by that interaction I witnessed today, and will take this opportunity to remind myself that abuse comes in all sorts of forms. Whenever a person makes another feel bad about themselves, it's abuse. It is our jobs as parents to guide our children, but to also empower them so they make proper choices, not to berate them and make them feel worthless.

Parents, take note, your words stick with your children. And they mean something.

Wheat Free

Our family has decided to eliminate wheat from our diet.

Background: Last year, I decided enough was enough and started seeing a nutritionist. In six months, I lost 30 pounds. I stopped going in May of this past year, and while I haven't gained much at all (five pounds maybe?), I've noticed that our whole family eats A LOT of wheat. Look in your supermarket, and you'll see that there's wheat in probably 75% of the food there. I've also noticed that if I eat bread or something with quite a bit of wheat in it, I feel awful. My tummy hurts, I get a headache, I have difficulty breathing, sometimes I experience chest pain. And now my daughter has been complaining of a sore tummy every time she has a bowl of KD(macaroni and cheese), or if she has a sandwich. We switched to rye bread well over a year ago, but even that has whole wheat flour in it.

Also, wheat consumption has been tied to infertility, so hey, maybe it'll do something if I cut it out.

So we're going to try this little experiment and see if it does anything to improve how we feel. I'm going a bit more extreme and cutting out all grains except for rice, gluten-free oats and quinoa. This is day two for me, and I'm already feeling pretty decent. Please note that today is Thanksgiving up here in Canada, though, so that meant that I didn't get any bun with my turkey dinner, or stuffing (not that I like stuffing anyway), and no pie crust on my apple pie. And boy, did I ever want that bun!!

Wish me luck. I'll keep you all posted on how this goes.