The parents I thought I knew...

I was under the assumption growing up that my parents were the healthiest, cleanest, neatest people ever. Now being 26 and going back home quite often to help them clean and do things around the house. I realize I was wrong on so many levels...

I thought my parents were soooo healthy, yet what do I find when I go to look for a healthy snack? Chips! Potato chips, tortilla chips, snack chips!!!! We never ate out, we always had home cooked meals, drank milk with all meals (Rice milk for me.) and really never had dessert around. (Unless it was girl scout cookie time, Daddy had to buy like 10 boxes from me, of course.)

We were never allowed soda growing up, especially soda with caffeine. Yet WHAT DO I FIND WHEN I LOOK IN THE DINING ROOM??? SODAAAAA!!! What happened to my parents? Who are these people? What have these alien lifeforms done with the real John and Judy?! "Sugar and acid in the soda rots your teeth!" They scolded, "No sugar gum or candy! It rots your teeth!" They exclaimed, "NO, you do NOT need two Big Macs, you are 10 years old, where will you even put it?" My Dad would ask....

I also thought for many years, that my parents instilled in me not only my morals, beliefs, and character. But my sense of cleanliness and hatred for clutter. So. I. Thought... (Enter horror music) I cannot believe the amount of clutter and junk my beloved parents have.
SO, this is what I have recently determined after pondering not only these inconsistencies with my childhood memories and also why they also never drank until recent years. (Now it will be no later than 10:30 am and my Mom is breaking out the Bacardi); my parents hid who they really were until we all grew up! They decided to fake it till they made it, and it worked out well for them. It definitely helped there were 4 of us kids, we all did different jobs around the house and pretty much were the lawn and house crew without pay. (The health benefits were phenomenal though, free for 18 years...) I am much more clean, organized, and clearly eat healthier than either of them. Now they can treat themselves to a job well done, and pig out on junk food and leave piles and piles of stuff all around to their little hearts content... They pushed us into sports and extra curricular activities, volunteer work, and scouts. I workout regularly and try to volunteer for a few things a year. I donate to charities, I care about others, I cook, I clean, I am... Pretty awesome and I have my parents hiding their love of sugar laden drinks and salty crunchy snacks to thank for that. Ok, so not quite, but honestly it really dumbfounds me how much they really did behind the scenes that seemed so unreasonable then, that I am so thankful for today.

My parents deserve every sodium enriched morsel and liquified sugar in a can they consume.