I fed my kids chicken nuggets and I am not sorry

Listen, I have never claimed to be the perfect mother. Sure I stay at home with the kids all day, but I am pretty far from the “domestic” housewife that my husband probably dreams of.

I am currently re-washing a load of laundry for the third time because I keep forgetting to switch it over, my bed is unmade, I took a nap while my kids did, *gasp*, and yes, I fed my kids frozen chicken nuggets made in the air fryer for dinner.

Before you judge, I am not a crunchy mom. I do care about what my children are eating and what they are exposed to, and I do try to limit “treats” and make sure they eat as close to a balanced meal that a 6,4, and 2 year old could possibly have, but I am tired.

My husband and I had ham and beans for dinner because it was something I could throw together real quick and I knew my kids weren’t going to eat it. Don’t get me wrong, we do have a “one bite” rule in our house that the kids have to take at least one bite of everything on their plate. This lets them get exposed to and “used” to new foods and ones that I really want them to like. Like beans! However, we aren’t going to force them to eat an entire serving of something that they don’t like.

I was in no mood to cook an entirely different meal for my kids, so I reached for the fail-safe chicken nuggets in our freezer, threw them into the air fryer for 15 minutes so they were nice and crispy, and threw them on their plates with the dipping sauce of their choice.

I can already hear the judgement coming from online moms (and even people who don’t have kids but have an opinion) and I start to feel a little guilty. How could you possibly feed your kids that processed junk food?? Don’t you even care about their health? Are you really that lazy that you couldn’t make them a five course balanced meal?

That feeling lasted for all of about 2.5 seconds before I said “I’m too tired for this” and served them.

This kids are passing around a cold that I feel like I am catching too, I have an economics paper due, I just spent all day playing dolls with the 4 year old, and I am in the depths of potty training and cleaning up all the messes that come with it.

I haven’t slept and I have reached the levels of tired that I haven’t felt since the newborn days.

Yes, the house is still a mess. Yes, laundry is still not done. Yes, I was too “lazy" to fix a balanced meal for my kids. No, I don’t feel sorry for it.

With all these online moms posting their “perfect” parenting and all these non-parent people being very loud with their opinions, and it is easy to feel like you are failing your kids if your house is a mess and you haven’t fed them an organic, non GMO, homemade, sugar-free, dye-free, gluten-free balanced meal.

But you know what?

You don’t have to be so extra and over the top to be a good parent and have happy and healthy kids.

You don’t have to spend a small fortune in all those “healthy” specialty foods.

Seriously, kids can survive on berries and shredded cheese if you would let them.

Barring any medical issues, all you need for healthy kids is to try and feed them as much of a variety of foods as possible, let them run around and be crazy for their exercise, take them to their doctor and get their shots, and just love them.

Crazy how simple that is. Don’t overcomplicate it.

Some days are going to be harder than others, but kids are resilient. One chicken nugget/takeout day is not going to harm them.

The next biggest thing you can do to take care of your kids is to take care of yourself. Take the nap. Dishes/laundry can wait until after your shower.

If you have the support system, use them. Take a night for yourself and/or your partner. If they offer to watch your kid(s) so you can shower/nap, take them up on the offer.

Raising kids is hard on its own, don’t make extra work for yourself when you don’t have the extra energy to give.