I am a Cocoa Puffs kind of girl. I have a genuine passion for artificially sweetened, red dye enhanced, kid friendly cereals. The people at General Mills love me because health is not an issue for me. The more sugar and dye in the cereal, the more likely I am to buy it.
I know I have blogged on this topic before, but adult cereals confuse me. Who wants to eat one of those fiber cereals that look like bundles of twigs? Screw fiber, I’ll take my chances with colon cancer, just pass me the damn Fruity Pebbles! Gina brought me some Kashi crunch one day that she got free at the CVS and I poured myself a bowl. It tasted an awful lot like hay and grit soaked in milk.
I was at the Publix last week and they had all their General Mills cereals BOGO (buy one get one in Publix speak!!!) I was delighted and I grabbed a box of Cocoa Puffs, one of my all time favorite comfort foods. I also got a box of Lucky Charms, for those technicolor marshmallows of course; does anyone really eat the nasty oat cereal? I got some Cinnamon Toast Crunch and then, as an afterthought, I grabbed a box of Cheerios. Every once in awhile, I like a good healthy bowl of Cheerios, doused with 1/2 cup of sugar, of course!!
Let me back up a moment to share a story with you. The goddess was invited to spend the night at the home of Teensy and her curly headed moppet. In honor of the moppet’s first overnight guest, she was allowed to pick out a sugary cereal with which to impress her guest. The sleepover was a smashing success and a good time was had by all. The next morning, the moppet proudly produced the Froot Loops, purchased exclusively for the delight of the visiting royalty. The goddess looked at them politely, then espied the Rice Krispies and her eyes lit up like Christmas trees: “oooooh, can I have that instead?” So the moppet gorged herself on the sugary cereal and the goddess gorged herself on the healthy cereal. Weird.
Fast forward to this weekend, and the moppet came to spend the night with the goddess. I knew the moppet would be most impressed with the contents of my pantry. The selection of sugar was enough to make Willy Wonka swoon. Sunday morning, I opened the door with a flourish and sure enough, the moppet was beside herself with delight. As I was naming the cereals, the goddess was yawning. But then the bright yellow box caught her eye and she squealed in delight: “We have Cheerios??!!!”
What kind of sick mother am I? Here I am, buying sugar coated cancer clusters and my kid wants freakin’ Cheerios? Obviously, I need to go back and read Dr. Spock again, because I am doing something wrong. Well, the moppet and the goddess sat at the table companionably, the moppet eating her cocoa puffs with gusto, the goddess consuming her Cheerios with delight. It was a Norman Rockwell moment.
That night, we came home from girl scouts and the goddess consumed two more bowls of Cheerios. It hurt my heart. I guess I need to learn from my child and try to make more wholesome cereal choices. Then again, maybe she needs to learn from me and eat more red dye number 78!!
DailyDiatribes 
17 Comments
I’m with you, but you forgot Trix. I loved Trix growing up, then they messed with it and the round balls were too soft, like Cap’n Crunch, and stuck to your teeth. Then, they changed it back to a harder consistency, but changed the shape to look somewhat like a flower, I think. Still, they were good. Then, just recently, they announced “A NEW SHAPE FOR TRIX!”. Guess what the new shape was – that’s right, they went back to the round balls! I haven’t tried them yet, so I don’t know if they are soft or hard. Don’t forget that Sugar Pops are now Corn Pops – who do they think they’re fooling? They tried to change Cocoa Krispies to Cocoa Rice Krispies – that lasted about a week, and now they are Cocoa Krispies again. Don’t mess with our sugary, red dyed cereal that turns your milk colors as you eat it!!!!
I must make one correction. The Goddess chose shredded wheat, which makes it even more health. Crazy. Usually it ends up me finishing the sugar cereal at my house b/c I was the kid that ran to the house of the sugary cereal kid’s house to stay. So, now I only buy one sugar cereal too, like my mom did (course for her it was Cheerios and we dumped 5lbs of sugar on it) so the Moppet loves the sugary ones too. By the way, love the Moppet name. She’s five, loves all things boyish, and has a mop of cury brown hair. Perfect for her.
I have the only 9 year old on the planet who likes to go to Picadilly and get veggies. She did notice the last time we were in there that we were the only people under the age of 65 in the entire restaurant.
Teensy, did she put sugar on the shredded wheat?
My all time favorite is Fruit Loops, but Punkin’ is much more taken with Captain Crunch, the ones with Pirate shapes. We have fruit flavored Cheerios, but only eat those when we’re out of the good stuff.
But as for adult cereals, try Kellogg’s Crunch. The one with caramel. Verrry good.
Adult cereal. Doesn’t that sound like it should have little penis and boobs floating around in it or something?
Blue Momma, you’re funny–adult cereal. I personally like Banana Nut Crunch. The girls don’t love cereal-preferring frozen waffles. Well, the skinny one loves a chocolate poptart as well. Or toaster strudel are a big treat at our house. But the prince loves anything with “crunch” in the name. Lately his favorite is Cinnamon Toast Crunch, but he also adores Cap’n Crunch–the peanut butter kind. I hate those little round balls–they roll under the microwave when you pour it–annoying. That’s why I like to buy the Original flavor- I can taste absolutely no differece in the plain and peanut butter, honestly, yet the red box sits up there rejected until I replace it with the orange one. Oh, we also but shredded wheat. That’s really the only cereal one of my 11 yo will eat. I occaisionally will but Fruit Loops and Rice Krispies or Cheerios.
Blue Momma, so what you’re saying is we should call them PORN FLAKES instead of corn flakes???
My mother was a health food nut when I was growing up. We were NEVER allowed to have sugared cereal. Oatmeal, shredded wheat,puffed wheat, Wheaties, raisin bran, and Cherrios were the only ones allowed. 18 years I lived through what I thought was breakfast torture! Cherrios and oatmeal were not so bad, but I longed for the stuff all my friends got to enjoy. Now I know dietitians are applauding my Mother’s effort, but when I moved out on my own, the sugared cereal is all I ate and bought for years!!! Because I could! Now I try to provide my kids a balance, I have a little bit of all of it in my pantry. We mix the good stuff with the sugared so it’s not so bad. My 5 year old comes up with the greatest combinations! Moderation is the key, I think.
Oooh, more business for me! I am available for diabetes consultations Mon-Thur.
OK, like Deb, my mom also forbade sugary cereals. I learned to like … wait for it …Grape Nuts! Now I eat a low fat granola. My kids really want the sugar stuff, but how can I do that and respect myself as a physician? They do like Blueberry Morning (the blueberry version of Kiki’s favorite) and Honey Nut Cheerios. Mainly they eat left over pancakes. Publix’s sugar coated shredded wheat mixed with the plain kind works too.
Nancy, it was the frosted kind. My secret is out. I do buy the frosted kind. THey love it. My oldest does like Honey bunches of oats but when one bowl is consumed, she goes for the sugar kind. Ok, so we have a kind of “dessert” at breakfast. One question. What happened to all the good prizes!!?
Pop tarts has a free Pirates clock–you have to buy 5 boxes with the tokens, but that was no problem for us! Otherwise the toys only appeal to the 6 yo boy. Seems like Disney has a corner on the cereal market these days…they have tons of themed sugary cereals and the only toys seem to be Disney toys.
I am dating myself, and know most of you, so I realize I have at least 10 years on you, but I remember having to save box tops and send them in with 50 cents to get a prize. I think I managed to actually do it one time, and the prize wasn’t worth the effort.
Okay, how fun that we all can be so entertained by the nutritional facts of breakfast food:)
I too was one that was deprived of sugary cereal. Heck, I was deprived of all junk food! Like Teensy, I anxiously waited for the weekends to arrive so I could visit friends and neighbors to invade their pantries that were set up a lot like the Brunner’s.
Believe it or not, my children too love cheerios and strawberry shredded wheat!
dbf
“Screw fiber”, huh? OK, I’m on my way to the Elmore County courthouse to find out what I have to do to legally change my name to Fiber” and I want you to remember what you said if I do, Jen. 🙂
Elmore county. Memories! I went to school at Edgewood. Small world.
Quick Mother Fant, let us get an invite to the author here so we can get surary pops for breakfast!!!! : )
Teensy, I’m not gonna’ ask when you went to Edgewood because you don’t pry into a lady’s age. But I’ll tell you that from sometime in ’70 until about ’74 I lived on West Bridge Street (ALA 14 which ran by Edgewood) so, yes, Small World. Then I moved to Lake Jordan for around a dozen years. My girls went to school in Wetumpka, but they knew a bunch of the Edgewood kids.