Why I Chose the "Flavor Mix" Instead of the Healthy Snack Pack

My kids are very active. They dance, they scout, they play sports, they make me crazy '" all vigorous activities. For some of these activities, like sports, a mom is asked to bring the snack for the kids to have after the game is completed. Although this should be an easy thing to do '" they send a list, you put your date on your calendar and when the day comes, you bring the shit with you. Simple, right?

Wrong. It stresses me out. What do I bring? Something healthy? Dessert? Candy? And if it's night game, like a lot of them are during the school year, what time is too late to eat Oreos or too early to eat carrot sticks? This snack decisions is a huge decision that brings tension and anxiety to suburbs everywhere.

My dilemma is if I bring those carrot sticks, the kids would look at me as if I were a witch (therefore they would just run for the hills). But if I bring those Oreos, the kids will love me, but the parents '" the ones who have not given their child dinner or do not believe in serving them dessert '" will give me that disapproving, suburban-parent smirk as their kid grabs their Oreos out of my bag as fast as they can. The parent makes sure they are heard when directing them not to eat it until later.

As fate will have it, my son has a T-Ball game tonight, and yes, I happen to be snack mom for this one. My husband offered to pick something up on the way home from work, but I, of course, told him I could make time to pick something up. This, he knew meant that I did not think he would get the right thing. He was relieved that I chose to pick up the snack, but still proud of himself that he made the offer.

At the store, I perused the aisles. A while back, I had gotten a snack box that had a mix of 100-calorie packs of chips, crackers and cookies. This was a hit with my daughter's team because of the variety for the girls. The small packaging seemed to make most of the parents approve as well. At least they did not show their perfect-parent frowns. However, today ( of course) I could not find this box of treats so I had to choose something else. There are all sorts of crazy chip combos, but the one thing I do know is that no one ever eats the Sun Chips.

I decided to not get cookies because one, I couldn't find a box I liked, and two, I know that most parents would prefer if there was not a sweet as the snack, and three, I could not take the disappointed suburban faces. I ended up with the "Flavor Mix" rather than the baked mix because, by golly, kids just don't want that. My kids,however, do eat the baked stuff, because I have been cramming it down their faces since they were old enough to eat them, so I can feel better about being slightly healthier. But other kids, well, they want the crap. So that's what I got '" the crap. If Cool Ranch Doritos and sour cream and onion chips don't go over well, then the parents can stick the Chili Cheese Fritos where the sun don't shine. After all, I did it for the kids.