Slice of Life - On sunburns and junk food

It’s Tuesday which means my girls and I spent the first half of the day at the lake with our friends. It is my favorite day of the week.

I’ve been trying to remember this summer that the girls are growing up and can take care of themselves in many ways, so for the past few outings, I had them pack their own lunches. I’m still nearby, probably in the kitchen packing my own lunch or gathering shared snacks, so their not completely on their own. No totally chocolate lunch would get past me.

Todays choice was peanut butter on rice cakes, and goldfish crackers. I threw in some fruit to balance it out, and reminded them they might get thirsty. Not a bad lunch, though heavy on the carbs. However, when we got to the beach, they not only ate the treat we packed, but those their friends brought to share as well. What a belly-aching day of chips, goldfish crackers, and chocolate chip muffins.

The other area I’ve been encouraging more independence is sunscreen. I give them easy to use sticks to coat their faces, and all sorts of spray bottles and lotions stashed around so we are never without. Today, I was distracted and though I remember asking if they had put on sunscreen, I didn’t actually see one of the girls apply it.

We were home for about an hour when my oldest came over and said, “I think I got a sunburn, my shoulders are sore”. When she turned to show me I moaned so loud my youngest came down the hall to see what was the matter. My normally pasty white little girls was fuchsia. I apologized for not reminding her to reapply sunscreen after lunch and that’s when she admitted she hadn’t put any on in the first place (though she told me she had).

This is too painful a lesson for me to be glad that she’s learning it.

But, I do hope she has learned it and will never again feel like putting on sunscreen is too much bother.

A slice of life I could do without.