Cereal For Supper: The Day Ahead

Hello, Parents & Kids world! I’ll be taking over for Jessica as she and Step and their beautiful brood move on to their next adventure. This isn’t my first run at Parents & Kids. I’ve written for this fun magazine off and on for probably 10+ years. As life changes brought about schedule changes, I would have to give up things to also be able to give up some stress. P&K fell under that ax from time to time.

But, at least for now, I’m back! And I’ll reintroduce myself to you. I’m a homeschooling mom of 3, although one is in college now. I have family and good friends in public, private, and hybrid schooling systems, and I came out of the public school system. (Go Cougars!) My long-suffering husband, Jason, has been my official rock and best friend for 20 years now, and he’s stuck with me.

I’m a photographer, an old dancer whose brain remembers a lot more than her body will ever do again (although we probably shouldn’t test the brain, either), a church member, and a friend to some pretty fantastic people. (You know who you are!)

I got married at 30, I’ve had kids, I’ve lost parents, and I’m part of the “sandwich generation” now that my own mom isn’t able to drive because of macular degeneration. I hope that this column can be sometimes funny, sometimes serious, and sometimes helpful. But mostly, I hope that you get through reading it and know that while your experiences are different, you’re not the only one rowing the boat you’re in. As those crazy kids used to say, YMMV. (I also will occasionally use pop culture expressions that quit being popular at least 10 years ago, to the chagrin of my also long-suffering children).

I think Luke 6:31 (the “Golden Rule”) is something that everyone can agree with, and I think that family and community are such crucial parts of our experience as humans. And I love the Oxford comma.

Why the title “Cereal for Supper”? Simply put, I always tell moms who are stressing out about All the Things (and one of those things is putting yet another meal on the table), that sometimes cereal is perfectly fine for supper. Maybe a kid needs two or three bowls because he’s a teenaged boy. But it’s fine. It’s not every day. Balance, moderation, non-reactive decision making, and remembering that we’re all a lot tougher than we think we are are all parts of successful parenting.

Good parents aren’t perfect. Because perfect parents don’t exist. Good parents love their kids, own their mistakes, and don’t always cushion the blow when their kids mess up. Good parents have kids with high and low ACT scores. Good parents have kids who are athletes, band members, socially quiet types, and computer whizzes. Good parents have kids who are popular, introverted, and awkward. Good parents have kids who are absolutely average, have intensely complicated special needs, and are highly motivated to achievement. Good parents go through the drive-thru, create beautifully balanced meals, and sometimes serve cereal for supper.

There are a lot of you good parents out there, and I’m looking forward to sharing a little bit of myself with you. And we’ll talk about The Day Ahead.

Hi, P&K world. I’m Leah Kackley.