The 5YO was mad the other morning because I wouldn't let him and his brother have a second bowl of Frosted Mini-Wheats for breakfast. Both boys have inherited their father's passionate love of Frosted Mini-Wheats, which I will never understand, but then I think Grape-Nuts is the bee’s knees so this is the kind of person they're dealing with. There's no accounting for taste in breakfast cereal.
I had already been back and forth with the 5YO about how one bowl of Mini-Wheats was enough on top of the yogurt he already had, and now he was sulking about it as I buttered his toast.
Him: ...You let us have two bowls of Cheerios yesterday.
Me: You're still trying to negotiate a better deal? Listen, Cheerios only has 1 gram of sugar and Mini-Wheats has 12, which is a LOT more sugar. Moreover, if you and your brother have two bowls of Mini-Wheats, that's four bowls each day, then we go through a whole box of Mini-Wheats in two days and you don't have any left for the rest of the week.
Him: But we have two boxes.
Me: Yes, so Daddy can have some, too.
Him: Then buy threes boxes. Or four boxes. Or FIVE BOXES!
(You have to admire his logic and persistence.)
Me: If we spend all our money on Mini-Wheats, we won't have money for the other things we need. Like toilet paper.
(Bad example. Toilet paper is totally expendable in his eyes.)
Me: Or milk.
(Try again.)
Me: Or ice cream.
(Okay, nooooow he gets it.)
Me: Would you like to have Mini-Wheats for dessert instead of ice cream? Because you can.
Him: No.
Me: Okay then.
Him: ...Can I have some ice cream right now?
Oh, transitive property, why have you forsaken me? If breakfast equals Mini-Wheats and Mini-Wheats equals ice cream, then breakfast equals ice cream. I have a feeling somebody's going to do better in math than I did.
My kids have mad negotiating skills, too. More importantly, all this time I only thought you had one kid. Hm. I need to start paying better attention.
Posted by: Amy | March 18, 2011 at 04:21 PM
That's disturbingly good negotiation, there... But not a bad idea from the 5yo!
Posted by: melch | March 18, 2011 at 05:11 PM
The boys are not to be blamed - the love for frosted mini wheats runs deep in genes! Your husband's cousins consumed mountains of these as teenagers :)
Mike M.
Posted by: Mike | March 18, 2011 at 08:06 PM
All I can think about is the yummy possibility of icecream for breakfast...
Posted by: Kirsty | March 19, 2011 at 02:57 PM
They are also the favorite of Cawston and Isaac
Posted by: F-I-L | March 20, 2011 at 03:25 PM
These are the favorites of my 7-yo daughter too. They are known as "sheep" in our house, which she named them at about 5. Why do I allow them at the breakfast table when I do not buy other "frosted" cereals? Is it because she came up with a cute name for them? I think I have rationalized it by telling myself how much whole-grain fiber and skim milk she is getting along with the 12g of sugar. Actually, I could probably rationalize that ice cream is a pretty balanced breakfast. Especially strawberry.
Posted by: sarabeth | March 21, 2011 at 11:06 AM
These days, kids are getting smarter and more business minded. The fact that they can out-negotiate you is an indication that they will become good businesspeople in the future. Anyway, the love of sweet stuff like ice-cream is strong in children. Some might not be able to digest cereal.
Posted by: Aileen Foo | March 22, 2011 at 10:51 AM
My kids love 'em too. I manage this by mixing them with unsweetened ones - half and half or even less than half sweet. They did not really catch on for years. Now that they are 8 and 11 they are objecting, but I figure I got a good 8 or 9 years of cutting the sugar by at least 1/2.
A note: one year, post- Easter when we had too many damned jelly beans laying around the house, I actually told my kids to eat jelly beans for breakfast, just so we could get rid of them!
Posted by: monica | March 30, 2011 at 10:13 AM