Today was one of those days when I was just 5 minutes off for everything. Hmmm...let me rethink that. I was 5 minutes off and forgetful today. I completely spaced on the fact that my older son (OS) needed to stay for lunch at preschool, and therefore I needed to pack him a lunch. I remembered this when I was halfway to the preschool running of course 5 minutes late.
I wasn't really sure what to do. Obviously it wasn't a crisis by any means, but I did need to somehow get OS lunch. However, I was hosting playgroup in 20 minutes so I really didn't have time to drop OS off at school, which we were already cutting really close, and then go home to make lunch and come back again. Frankly I didn't really want to do that either. I also would rather walk to the preschool and back barefoot with the lunch rather than unload the kids from the car if we stopped at a grocery store. That's when I came up with my million dollar idea which in reality has probably been thought of by 99% of all parents. I even came up with a name for it: Three Items or Less.
Three Items or Less would be a drive-thru convenience store where you could purchase three or less items. In my case, I would have driven through and picked up a Lunchable or another somewhat palatable lunch offering or at the very least something that resembled lunch. Let's say you were running low on milk and tampons. Instead of having to schlep your kids out of the car and listen to the ensuing whining, you could get the items through a drive-thru window!
Since Three Items or Less only exists in my head, I had to go to the closer real life version of it: Dunkin Donuts. Fortunately they're located about every 5 feet here in MA. I got OS a bagel with cream cheese and juice. I have to say that I was surprised by two things - I am not the first parent to send their kids with a drive-thru lunch (and here I was patting myself on the back for my sheer brilliance...in an effort to assuage my guilt for forgetting about lunch in the first place.)
- It was his favorite lunch of the year.
As for my million dollar idea, if I had the time to implement it, then I wouldn't need Three Items or Less in the first place. On a side note, can someone please explain to me why my golden retriever had to contemplate whether or not to eat Teddy Grahams off of the floor? Due to some weird force of nature or perhaps my younger son (YS)'s carseat, YS had about 15 of them stuck to his bottom which of course spilled on the floor right when we walked in the door. The dog initially stuck his nose up at them before reluctantly eating them. He loves eating out of the cats' litter box, so you would think that the cookies would be a gourmet treat!
A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: If your first choice place doesn't actually exist, use a drive-thru to grab lunch for your child.Labels: Food (Solid), Humor (at least Attempted), Pets and Animals, Preschool |
That's a really great idea. I would have loved a place like that when I had 2 kids under 3. Heck, I'd still like a place like that, especially when I'm sick, or one of the kids is sick.