Sometimes, Ketchup is a Vegetable.

A little bit about me: I have a background as a nutrition coach. And way back before I had kids, I had certain, ahem, expectations of how my kitchen table would look.

You know, full of the typical things kids love and eat all the time: bone broth, heaps of vegetables, sauerkraut, liver, and butter.

And now I’m a mother and now my kids know mac-n-cheese exists. And now you know the rest of the story.

But the desire to feed my kids nutrient dense food remains strong. I mean, it’s in all of us, right? In fact, the great internationally recognized expert on feeding children, Ellyn Satter, said “Feeding is Parenting.” If we’re not feeding our children well, are we even parenting?

But here’s the real secret of it all: it’s just not always that easy to get healthy food into our kids, for a variety of reasons. If you are like me, this worry consumes you. The craziest part is that you’ll pass up on real life adventures to ensure your children have a well balanced meal.

Perfection’s Place at the Table

This past summer, my son found his fins. He realized that life in a swimming pool was way better than life on dry land.

One Wednesday afternoon, I got off of work with a plan to head to the grocery store. Our cupboards were bare. As soon as I exited my basement office, my son cornered me and asked begged to go swimming.

No. I planed to say No. I didn’t have a plan for dinner. Nothing was prepped, I was really tired. My husband was traveling, And we had no vegetables in our house.

The conversation in my head went something like this: “Nope. Sorry kiddo. We need a trip to the grocery store. We can go swimming tomorrow.”

But. Adventure was calling. Or begging. Whichever.

Deep breath.

Pause.

Hear the needs.

Both of my kids had been keeping it together for the babysitter and needed to release some energy. My son had a new found love of swimming and the pool was only going to be open for a few more weeks. He wanted some novelty and adventure in his life- we almost never go swimming in the evening.

But, I also needed to acknowledge my needs. I needed to feed my children well and I didn’t have a single vegetable in my house. I was (and still am) so exhausted by the crushing guilt of perfection parenting. And I didn’t want to admit it, but I needed some time outside, fresh air, and to smile.

And that’s how we got to ketchup being a vegetable. Because I don’t know about you, but we always have ketchup in our house.

Ketchup is made of tomatoes. Tomatoes are a vegetable. Ergo, ketchup is a vegetable…. right?

So I put ketchup on the menu and took perfection off. I threw some chicken nuggets in the air fryer while everyone got changed, squirted our vegetables into a container, lovingly packed the rest of our food, and we headed to the pool.

Yes, my son, we can go to the pool. And I need you to eat some vegetables too, mmk?

Adventuring Requires Flexibility

Some days I’m as flexible as an uncooked spaghetti noodle.

My kids ask for something, I battle internally and end up saying no. Lather, rinse, repeat. Eventually I end up snapping in half, with bits of dried noodle flying everywhere.

Other days I’m more like a cooked spaghetti noodle and the kiddos and I have a really great time. And more importantly, we strengthen our relationship.

Embracing the adventure means embracing flexibility.

(Despite what the 2012 version of myself might think.)

Cheers!

Have you ever used ketchup as a vegetable (or a different vegetable stand in)? Do you struggle with flexibility? Let me know in the comments!