We may have created a cookie monster

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I knew it would come back to haunt us. Our undying love of the chocolate chip cookie is well-documented on this blog.

For the past two years, we’ve kept Cool Baby disinterested in cookies and the various other sweets that we indulge in. We would marvel to friends that we could eat treats in front of him, and he wouldn’t give them a second glance. We never gave him any, so he didn’t know what he was missing. Well, the jig is up.

Recently he made the connection between us eating these crispy melty golden brown discs and our gleeful smiles and high-fives. At some point, he wanted in.

It’s probably just natural – he’s a growing boy who wants to copy everything that Mama and Dada do. I’m sure there’s no stopping the sweet tooth.

But I can’t help but blame myself a little. Was it the bits of a coconut macaroon I gave him to stay happy in a coffeeshop? The sips of Snapple on a long walk? When I mistakenly filled his sippy cup with condensed sweetened milk instead of the plain stuff (which didn’t happen anyway)?

Sesame Street is not helping either. Every episode features CM (Cookie Monster, not Cool Mum) devouring a cookie with the letter of the day baked into it without any regard for the furniture or little children around him. The boy knows his Cookie Monster. When you ask him, “How does Cookie Monster eat?” he wiggles his fingers on his mouth and roars. Of course, he only does this when his hands are dirty.

We just need to stay strong. He has his whole adult life to eat junk like cookies, cake, and mayonnaise. We don’t need to give him a head start.

Discipline is the key. The discipline to not give in no matter how much he whines for the nutritionless cookie. And the discipline to shove as many cookies into our mouths as possible when he’s not looking. Parenting is sacrifice.