What do you get...........

....... when the teenager goes to the store for "a couple of supplies for school" ???

You get Post-It notes, index cards and.....................................................

                

THIS

Nice, huh? 

 Isabella has recently earned the status of "old enough to go to the store by herself".  I know that it is a rite of passage and vividly remember when I was her age and would walk to the 7/11 all by myself to get snacks with my babysitting money, drunk with the power of of being able to get anything I wanted.  I know that this sort of freedom is needed to grow responsibility. It is the beginning stages of learning how to manage money,  make good healthy food choices and the beginning of being able to take care of yourself.  You are not born with that sort of knowledge.... it is gained through trail and error and experience. 

  As an onlooking parent, these little steps towards adulthood can be difficult to watch. I want to walk back to the store and tell the cashier that our family is vegetarian, we eat TONS of vegetables and whole grains, avoid processed sugar and high fructose  corn syrup.  Then I want to walk her back home, sit her down and force her to eat a bag of carrots and some dried fruit. I want to NEVER let her shop for herself again.

Then, I breathe.............................................and I ask her for a cookie.