Mom Melts Sons Fears Away With French Fries

Like most full time working parents, I generally feel pretty bad. Bad for not spending enough time with my son... Bad for not spending enough time on projects for work... Bad for not spending enough time taking care of myself.... The guilt that we live with and allow ourselves to feel can be overwhelming. What's worse is that like most full time working parents, and certainly most moms, all I really want is: TO BE GOOD. To be the best... To make the best decisions and choices when it comes to parenting and rearing my child...
 
But sometimes, I make little errors. Little hiccups. Mistakes that by themselves may seem harmless and no biggie... but added up, well, might end up causing "issues...."
 
Last week, I made one of those little mistakes: (Click HERE for the deets!) I OFFERED MY SON FRENCH FRIES TO CHEER HIM UP.  A crime? No. A grave error? Not really. A decision though that could have been handled with a little less guilt and emotion, YES.  Essentially, I was late to pick up my 2 year old son from day care and he was very upset; I comforted him of course and then proceeded to take him to MacDonalds for french fries (something we NEVER do).
 
Sure, once he saw the golden arches and caught a whiff of all things fried, his sadness at my being late seemd to be forgotten. But really, I wasn't addressing the issue. I wasn't calming his real fears. Was I just feeding in to them? (Figuratively AND literally?) After all, we just reported about how anxiety as children can lead to obesity.  Was I setting my son up to fail and sending him the wrong messages?
 Is there a danger in turning your child on to food during "frightening" experiences?

Check back in TOMORROW, as Parents Ask Expert Dr. Bonnie Zucker weighs in who says this may be a "Growth Opportunity" for me as a parent... (And she doesn't mean my waistline. I hope).