Treat Cereal

Growing up we had two categories of cereal – “Breakfast cereal” and “Treat cereal.”  Just like it sounds, treat cereal was the good kind.  How did my Mom distinguish - the ingredients list.  Any cereal that listed sugar in the first three ingredients was a “treat.”  It didn’t leave a lot for breakfast, but we managed:  Cheerios, Corn Flakes, Raisin Bran, Rice Krispies, the dreaded Grape Nuts, or my favorites – Crispex and Kix.  And the rest we could have for afternoon snack or special treat times; there lied my other favorites: – Frosted Flakes, Corn Pops, Lucky Charms (before they added more marshmallow shapes than there are rainbow colors), and my all-time favorite – Peanut Butter Captain Crunch. 

Breakfast is different for me these days.  Aside from the fact that in this day and age it seems no cereal has sugar in any lower than the top two ingredients, cereal is different in that it has taken on new meaning, become symbolic.  After becoming a mother, and especially a mother of two, who continues to work full-time, I became a woman who has spent many a morning having to choose between eating breakfast and getting a shower (and occasionally when I did get both it was because I was choosing the secret ‘get to work late’ third option).  The last several-months-to-two-years have included a routine of tears, choices, frantic running around, watching while my husband and son ate together without me, and a grumbling stomach when I get to work each morning.  I struggled to watch my family get to sit down and have breakfast, while I was stuck pumping and trying to get myself and/or the diaper bag ready in time, carried through with the simple hopes that I would get a granola bar from my desk drawer when I arrived at work, and that maybe tomorrow would be different; maybe tomorrow I would get breakfast.  Instead of having “treat cereal” as a special snack, I found myself viewing any cereal as a special treat.  It has been a long-haul, one in which cereal became symbolic to me of my hopes, and sacrifices, as a mom – what I had to give up for them, and what I wished I didn’t have to.  A long-haul in which morning after morning, I looked at the box of cereal, and wished. 

Recently our family did a ‘re-structuring.’  We have now worked out a morning schedule and new task assignments, which have allowed our mornings to go a bit more smoothly and allow more time for everyone.  The best part is that it gives us more (lower-stress) time together as a family.  This is what I have wished for, what I always wish for. 

But I will admit that a close runner-up, the second best part, is that now I get breakfast! 

This past week, I made the comment after having to choose between the big bowl of Lucky Charms (with the additional darn un-identifiable marshmallows that I still don’t believe belong in the box) and the bigger bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch that my husband had poured for our breakfasts, “Mommy’s ‘treat cereal’ upbringing has definitely gone out the window!” 

Yes, times have changed.  From cereal categories as a child, to longing for any cereal as a stressed-out mom, to a big ol’ bowl of sugar.   From having to choose whether breakfast was the ‘treat’ I would get at all, to choosing which big bowl of treat cereal I would devour.  Thank goodness for changes. 

But the truth is that I would gladly go back to any of the most simple of cereals with sugar at the bottom of the list, including the dreaded Grape Nuts, just for the time with my family at the breakfast table.  For me, that is the true treat of cereal!