Good & Plenty

I know I have already written about licorice, but Good & Plenty are a bit different than licorice, don’t you think? They have that soft, yet crunchy out layer of pink or white before you get to the licorice part – a bigger bang for your buck, if you will!  I recently picked up a box of Good & Plenty at the store (they were having a 10 for $10 special, and no, I didn’t buy 10 boxes of candy, I only bought two!  I do have some self-control after all).  As I poured out a handful of candy I thought of when I was younger and how I would spend a whole box full trying to determine if the pink ones tasted different than the white ones!  My childhood self swears they taste different, but the grownup me knows they don’t (they don’t, right?). As I was making my way through the box of candy I started thinking about parenting and how when it comes to raising our children we always want to be different than how our parents raised us but yet we are kind of the same too.

Being raised a Kennedy in a family of 9 plus a dog, a parakeet, multiple hamsters, and a handful of motorcycles, things were pretty relaxed. The house wasn’t spotless (just ask my mom about how after cleaning the bird cage one day the bird seed sprouted in the bathroom and grass started growing in the carpet). No one seemed to care we were too busy with life! There is another side of being a Kennedy though, and that is the “stiff upper lip” side. We weren’t an overly demonstrative family, yes we loved each other (most of the time) we didn’t always show it. I may love my siblings, but I don’t think I ever told them that (at least not when I was younger). And there were certain things you just didn’t talk about  - for example, illnesses, feminine hygiene, sadness, etc. I’ll never forget that when it came time to go buy my first bra my dad asked my mom where we were off too – the response – to go buy an “unmentionable.” Say what??

Fast forward to being a parent myself. Yes, admittedly, I have kept much of that relaxed nature of housekeeping (maybe not to the extent of growing bird seed in the bathroom), but I have worked hard to shed that layer of stand-off-ness. I hug my kids and tell them I love them as much as possible. It is natural and not forced. I think I have done a good job being a more open and honest parent than my parents, But when I see Steve, my sweet husband, with our kids I know I have miles to go. There is no conversation that he won’t have with our girls, no matter the topic. He loves our kids openly and honestly without reservation. There was a reason he was the stay-at-home parent more than just income potential, he is a natural. And while there at times when Stephanie is more like a Kennedy than a Budge, Steve is in her face saying give me a hug, and she does!

So there you go – when you open a box of candy, you never know where it will take you! Today it was about being a better parent and about love and openness with your children. What will you think of when you open a box of candy? Go find out, they are on sale – 10 for $10!