Photo by: Tony Crider

The Princess and the Hot Dog Bun: A Short Story About Choosing Your Battles

by Lisa of "Adventures in Motherhood"
Photo by: Tony Crider

Once upon a time, there was a little princess who was three years old. Let’s call her Princess Lulah. She lived with her brothers and sisters, her daddy, The King, and her mommy, the Mean Queen, whom we’ll call Moi.

One morning, Princess Lulah woke up and went into the kitchen, where her mommy, Moi, was preparing lunches for her children to take to school. Lulah spied something on the kitchen counter.

“I want that for breakfast,” she said to her mommy, pointing to the package.
“You can’t have that for breakfast! Those are hot dog buns!” Moi replied.
“But I want one!” Princess Lulah said.
“No, absolutely not,” said Moi.
“But I want one!” insisted the little Princess, stamping her pretty little princess foot.
“Hot dog buns are NOT for breakfast. You may have cereal or waffles. Which will it be?” asked Moi.
“I want THAT!” demanded Princess Lulah.

Moi opened her mouth to sternly repeat to the little Princess that she could not have a hot dog bun for breakfast…and then suddenly, I—er, Moi—realized, “What’s the big deal? Why can’t she have a hot dog bun for breakfast? It’s whole wheat, and really no different than toast after all.”

So she let Princess Lulah have a hot dog bun for breakfast. And sunshine poured in through the windows, a dazzling rainbow appeared right over their very house, and the angels sang. And Moi lived in peace and harmony with her children from that day forward.

Okay, that last part? Not really. But the rest? I’m just saying.

Lisa is a forty-something SAHM to six children, including two gifted, a pair of twins, a precocious pre-schooler, and a toddler with Down syndrome. She is married to her best friend, a brilliant attorney, talented musician, and cancer survivor.

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55 Comments

I applaud any mother, much less one with six kids - I had six siblings and huge-energy sons myself - so I know parenting is difficult. As a one-off this is no big deal. What might become a problem is when a mom says, 'no absolutely not!' and doesn't mean it, the children don't respect her word or believe her telling them the truth. As far as the food, I'm not a fan or either processed meats or store-bought buns, but again, I have 2 sons, five years apart, not six kids with lots going on...

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so so true...lovely story. like your writing style lisa...and mother of six! sweet bio too.

If the food choice is healthy, I don't see a problem with giving the child what it wants to eat. If it was candy or sweets, I would say no but otherwise let them choose and learn what's good to eat and not good to eat whatever time of day it is. Also don't buy junk food, that way all their food choices will be right no matter if it's breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Who says you can't have breakfast for dinner or vice versa.

HA! Cracks me up and sounds just like something I would figure out and then implement. Thanks for sharing.

We have 2 great kids who from day one ate breakfast for dinner dinner for breakfast or whatever. We just quide them and make recomedations now at 15 and 16.
They are both high honors and great kids With some luck and love and guidence you will get there :-)

great story - just one thing thought - i believe consistency is the most important thing. go ahead, let her have the hot dog bun, even chocolate cake (once in a blue moon) for breakfast - but, by all means, don't give in after she's demanding & on the verge of a meltdown. that's just teaching her that if she throws a fit she'll get her way. be the wise & wonderful one who says it's ok to do something wacky sometimes if the behavior warrants it.

I too have learned the lesson of choosing battles with my very precocious 3.5 yr old. I've adopted the philosophy that anything is ok for breakfast except chocolate (which would be my daughter's meal of choice). Some mornings she wants Veggie Booty and a cheese stick, others a waffle. As long as her tummy is full of something other than pure sugar when we walk out the door, I consider it a successful morning!

Hot dog buns reminds me when one of my boys was in preschool/K and wanted to take his sandwich on a hot dog bun. Like you, I figured it's whole wheat and just bread in another shape, so why not? But his sandwich of choice at the time was peanut butter with a drizzle of molasses (learned from my grandpa), so we called it a pe-mo-dog, and he took pe-mo-dogs to school a lot for two years......

I figure if it's good enough for another meal then it's good enough for them to have anyway. We have had cold cereal for dinner many times and I don't think there is anything wrong with that. Pick you battles... some are worth getting worked up over... others are not.

Having gone though the same decision making process with my husband, I would happily embrace whole wheat hot dog buns for my toddler!

My son turned 57 in July & ketchup is his life. A funny thing he thinks tomatoes are nasty, but the
ketchup is grand on eyerything. Dips his donut in
the katchup, and eats away. He is well known for the
ketchup thing, at church they make him a sundae topped
with ketchup. ugg

Wow! Lots of parenting advice here! I have six kids, people, and while that doesn't make me an expert on parenting, I'm definitely not new to this. Referring to my daughter as "princess" was purely for the story, and rest assured that I'm not in the habit of giving in when my kids throw a tantrum...

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I love this! I always think about a situation before I automatically say no to my kids. My parents tended to use "No because I said so." waaaay too often. If there's no good reason for the "no," and it's just a power struggle, then why not? Less tantrums/fights= happier family!

Loved this post! Can't add much, just to say that we have found that the semantics of the moment ("picking our battles", in this case) can be thoughtfully changed-- we call it "deciding what's important", which changes it from a 'battle' to an assessment. Just sharing this idea here, and it sounds like you did find what was important indeed. Thanks!

What's to say anything is not 'normal' to eat for breakfast. In Europe they usually eat breat with what we would consider luncheon meat and cheese on it, in Asia it's rice and fish, Mexico tortillas and possibly beans. The American diet of cereal, waffles, pancakes, bacon and biscuits and gravy isn't exactly as healthy, but it's what we've considered normal...

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