Early this morning I opened up my kitchen pantry and stared blankly at our stash of jarred baby food. You've been there, right? It's 7:45am on an average weekday, we're already running late, and I'm desperately trying to get myself, my husband and the baby out the door will all of the proper accoutrement for our day. The baby needs lunch and I have two choices; jarred or homemade. Here is my jar dilemma.
The simplest choice on these hectic mornings would be to grab the jar, tuck a spoon in her bag and run. Alternatively, I can bite the bullet, be a bit late to work, and spend ten minutes pulling together a great combination of homemade baby food from the freezer and the fridge.
Why do I struggle with this choice? It's not that the jar is such a bad option. The food is stage appropriate, organic, simple, and free from preservatives. But something just makes my guilt hackles stand on end. My precious baby girl is being sent off to spend 9 long hours at daycare and I can't even manage to put together a homemade meal for her lunch. Am I a terrible mom if I send her with the jar? Am I wasting time rationalizing this decision; time that could be spent preparing some flavorful homemade food?
In the end, I send her with a jarred lunch, as I do at least a few days a week. Am I a bad mother? Well, I hope not and I rationalize it this way ... jarred peas are simply one of the many thousands of flavors she will experience in her lifetime. I prefer homemade when possible but processed, canned, jarred, and otherwise modified food is just a part of our everyday world. Besides, if I can save my sanity by not being late to work, I am going to be a better mom in the end.
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