The Sharing Fairy Only Works Part-time At Our House.

Jim and the boys, especially the younger one, have this “thing” about certain favorite foods and Whose Food It Really Is.

For example, if I purchase Honey Mustard Pretzels or Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, whoever finds them in the grocery bag first will declare “These are mine. Stay away.” And then a race of sorts will ensue, to see who actually gets to eat most of them and–the horror!–finish the bag first. (Not necessarily in one sitting.)

Recently, war broke out in the kitchen. I purchase sugar cereals very, very rarely, for a couple of reasons, the first being that Jim and I would totally inhale the entire box before it made its way to the pantry sugar cereals are really unhealthy. These cereals are also a total rip off where price is concerned. Lastly, we finally weaned our kids off of Pop Tarts and Toaster Strudels a couple of years ago and they are actually making better choices for breakfast: we don’t want to mess with that!

All of those awesome reasons for not buying sugar cereals went right out the window when Jim and I strolled through Target on a recent date. (I know, romantic! LOL) We were in the grocery side of the store when, lo and behold, we noticed the end cap display FULL of Boo Berry and Franken Berry, which only happened to be our childhood favorites. Better yet, they were on Clearance! We approached the display and, much to our dismay, discovered that Target’s clearance pricing was only 20 cents lower than the original*. It was still pretty cheap (and the boxes were the small size), so we–just for fun–bought two boxes of each.

That afternoon when the kids arrived home from school, Jim threw down the order: “MY cereal. Don’t touch!”

The thirteen-year-old had a problem with that, and declared all-out Sharpie War.

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Translation: “Keep your grubby paws off my cereal!”

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“Mom’s” (I TOTALLY did not instruct him to write that. Okay, maybe I did.)

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At first it said, “Keep Out: Dad’s!” but the younger boy scribbled that out and wrote his name on it instead…

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Then it was a whole mess of people writing their names on the boxes and someone else writing “NOT” above the names.

Count Chocula would NOT be happy about this; I’m certain of it!

*And by the way, I would like for someone to start some legislation making it illegal to declare that something is “On Clearance” unless there is a permanent markdown equal to or greater than 25% of the original price. Do you hear me, Target?

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12 Comments

  • Mom24

    ROFL, that’s so funny. You should all come here. I bought Count Chocula thinking my gang would love it as a special treat…it’s still sitting here. No one liked it. I’ll give up and throw it away soon.

  • Weaselmomma

    funny. Drive to my neck of the wood and go to Woodman’s. Way cheaper. I only buy the cereals that are ‘on sale’. I never pay more than $2.00 a box. We eat plenty of sugary goodness though.

  • Anonymous

    I love the “not” part written above the name by the enemy! I AM SO THERE WITH YOU! I liked cocoa pebbles growing up… MIND YOU, NOT AT THE TOO SOGGY STAGE…. only eaten JUST AFTER POURING THE MILK. Where do you stand on drinking the milk at the end of the sugary cereal? I never liked it. My friend, though, loved it.

    Okay, onto something else, I am toying around with the idea of wearing LEG WARMERS on tv tomorrow (!) Melissa, my dear friend, we’re the same generation… I can’t find my Flash Dance album, but I see that this is kind of trendy again and at the fashion show fundraiser i went to Saturday, the trendy girls were pulling it off. I am only asking you — SHOULD I DO IT??? email me discretely: weatherkim@yahoo.com!!

    XOXO – Weather Kim in DC and on TeeVee

  • Melissa

    OMG, that is hysterical! In my house we will eat everything but the last mouthful and then it will sit in the pantry for a year because no one wants to eat that last mouthful and get in trouble! LOL!

    I’m so getting the Sharpie out after the next time I grocery shop. Though eating gluten free does make Hope and Joe not want to touch my stuff..;)

  • Dea

    BWAHA!!! That’s awesome!! I, uh, have been known to actually buy and put foods in places that are hard to see on the top shelf so that my hubby can’t see…..so yeah, I can see this being us in a few….

    I’m with you on the 10% and 15% markdowns on the food at Target…oh please, yeah – 20 cents, wooo! I refuse, it’s an insult, I’d get a better deal with a coupon….:P

  • k a t i e

    This isn’t helping on the morning I’m out of milk…oh, Coco-Pops, we shall be together again soon…

    20 cents?! That’s almost cruel.

  • Melisa

    Stacey: Give up on the Count. Ick! I never liked that cereal…not sweet enough or something!

    Weaselmomma: I love Woodman’s! And I bought my Crapmobile across the street from there at the Pontiac dealer before it turned into a Hyundai (or whatever) dealer…

    Kim from TeeVee: As I told you ON THE PHONE TODAY (that was so fun!), I do not drink the pink (or blue) milk after the cereal is gone. Wasteful, yes. Icky, yes.

    Melissa: I think you should write your name on your gluten-free stuff anyway. How much fun would that be???

    Deanna: Ha! The height advantage! Love it!

    Katie: Ooh, sorry…go get some milk, girl!

    Trying to stay calm!: Thanks for stopping by!

  • Michelle

    Oh, the fun I have to look forward to. Thanks so much for cheering me up… especially because I know you aren’t alone in the claiming of food. At least right now I claim whatever food I want and EVERYone listens. If I keep reinforcing it, do you think it will work? Yeah… me neither.

    And Weaselmomma, ironically enough there was JUST a Woodman’s commercial on (watching MNF!) and I commented to my husband how creepy I find the commercials and how I didn’t think I could shop there. Maybe it’s not so bad?

  • Andie

    I used to do this when I worked for a credit union, in their main office. I t never failed, someone would always steal my lunch! so I started writing obscenities all over my meals.

    sadly, it only worked 1/2 of the time.

  • Mrs4444

    This was really funny, even BEFORE I read Andie's comment!hahaha

    We had to buy our own special food items when I was a kid, and with nine kids, you can imagine how hard it was to find a hiding place! (Mine was in the basement, behind the freezer!)