Your Family's "Guilty Pleasure"

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This is a take-off on the “Chuck E. Cheese is da Debble” thread. Nearly all of us have something we do that, while we are convinced it is not immoral, per se, is either morally problematic for some or condemned by others. What is the biggest example from your family, and how do you keep it in the proper boundaries? (In other words, what’s your rationalization?)

We let our kids have sips of wine or other spirits and have done so since they first wanted a try, as babies. My rule is that since vanilla extract is between 40-120 proof, it won’t hurt the kids to have a commensurate amount of flavor from any other alcoholic source: that is, the alchoholic equivalent of a teaspoon or two of vanilla extract. To keep within boundaries, each child may only get alcohol from one specified adult. Otherwise, they could milk the whole crowd and get themselves looped.

BTW: As long as this isn’t done in a public place, it is legal in Oregon for parents to serve alcohol to their own minor children. If it were illegal, I would probably refrain, albeit under protest, since I don’t want my kids to get the idea that illegal activities are okay “if no one finds out.” Getting alcohol before you’re 21 is not a need or a moral duty, so under normal circumstances, the law should be observed until it can be changed.

So, everybody, what will it be? Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd? Chuck E. Cheese? Refined sugar? One rule: No editorializing on anyone else’s choices. If somebody out there is still letting their kids ride in a station wagon with their feet dangling over the tailgate, even the ER nurses are required to bite their tongues. Let’s not reward honesty with condemnation… if they didn’t know they stood condemned, they wouldn’t have posted! That’s the point! Let’s just listen, and better understand how others think these things through.

If alcohol were totally legal for all ages, I still wouldn’t give our kids anything close to enough to get them even a buzz. The statistics show that the chances of becoming alcoholic are far higher for those who start drinking recreationally while still in childhood. That has to be a bigger concern than a dining experience. That’s *my *rationalization. If you go a bit farther, I will not chime in.
 
I don’t have kids yet.

That said, my parents were always willing to give me a taste of their beer or wine if requested. One sip was enough to convince me that I had no interest in the stuff and probably wouldn’t until I was a weird old grownup. 😃

My mom also used to occasionally stick a marshmallow on a fork for me and one for her, and we’d roast them over the flames of our gas stove burners. Probably dangerous, with lots of risk of fire or burns, but I never got hurt and it was fun to have toasted marshmallows in the dead of a Michigan winter. My dad just shook his head at that one.
 
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SeekerJen:
My mom also used to occasionally stick a marshmallow on a fork for me and one for her, and we’d roast them over the flames of our gas stove burners. Probably dangerous, with lots of risk of fire or burns, but I never got hurt and it was fun to have toasted marshmallows in the dead of a Michigan winter. My dad just shook his head at that one.
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We’ve done that, too, and it wasn’t even winter. It was yummy.
(The “no chime in” rule does not preclude agreeing, comparing, or expanding! :D)
 
In the wintertime, after a big snow, we tie a sled to the back of my dad’s avalanche or my mom’s silverado, and we go looping around a parking lot (slowly) or pastureland.

Yes, we know it’s dangerous but we are ultra careful and really don’t go that fast.

We also ride on the side or the bed of the truck if my dad is touring pastureland. (He drives very slowly and we all hold on very tightly.)

We were all taught to drive around age 11, if we were tall enough, and were allowed to drive around the farm. (Hundreds of acres.)

Hmmmmm I guess vehicular safety could be improved upon in our family! 🙂
 
My parents were raised in the Buffalo area therefore they know how to drive in snow. My father taught my brother and I how to do donuts in our 1984 Ford LTD in the back of a school in the parking lot. His rationale… now you know what a car feels like skidding and even doing donuts and now you know how to regain control.

My grandfather used to pull us in a hay trailer hooked to the back of his tractor lawnmower and pull us around his area.

My uncle would put us on the back of a jetski and would launch us off wakes (he would be at the controls).

My mother would have “lazy days” and let us kids eat whatever we could get ahold of (yes, it had to be food, not chocolate cocoa mix or something). Now I let my kids do that on occassion (this is for all those people out there that think the kids will die if they don’t eat three square meals a day with a snack between each meal and 8 8oz glasses of liquid (only water, milk or 100% juice) a day)

this is a pretty neat thread and I’ll be interested to learn what others do! 🙂
theresa
 
Our guilty pleasure is that we eat out too often.

It is a huge waste of money, so we are trying to cut back. It is just so tempting when I am home alone with the kids and my husband will be gone for weeks!

Our other guilty pleasure is Disney World vacations. I guess it seems so materialistic and wasteful to spend a week in a fantasy world… but it’s just so doggone fun!
 
We let our kids have sips of wine, we let our toddler stick her finger in dinner wine, and she likes it. After all, Catholic kids have to get ready to receive Communion somehow, LOL. At least this way they won’t spit it across the church.
 
when their dad went out of town on business it was anything goes at home, fast food meals or pizza, let the house go until the day before he came home, then we had a cleaning frenzy, watch whatever you want on TV (because he wasn’t there watching the ball game all night). Once I even deliberately missed Mass, but felt so guilty I never did it again.

Please, please please parents of children preparing for first communion, let them practice with wine at home, learning to take small sips. Use a dry brand so they get used to the sour tangy taste, so we don’t have to hear Eeeeewwww all over Church on first communion day. If you have a problem with wine, use cranberry juice or grape juice with a spoonful of vinegar.
 
I’m on the internet WWAAAYYY too much. My only rationale is that I try to go to “safe” sites like this one.

Our future one: we really want a motorcycle. We have helmets, and used to own one before it blew a piston. A friend’s daughter was over yesterday and said, “why do you have helmets but no motorcycle??” I just said wistfully, “someday, someday.”
 
Decadent food and too much of it.
On special occassions we tend to willfully overindulge in decadent food.
Today we ate red lobster sauce on linguine and even though we were stuffed to the gills we all had a piece of strawberry mousse cake and Italian pastry shop cookies. 😃
 
My "guilty pleasures " are Books , music and a hefty dose of Starbucks…and YES, I KNOW they support Planned Parenthood.
~ Kathy ~
 
I loved being pulled behind the truck in the backyard (a large one) on a tobaggan. I feel guilty for throwing away those plastic plates that come in frozen dinners. I hate trying to get them washed so that I can recycle them.
 
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contemplative:
Does that make you extra guilty?
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Not in the least…and you weren’t supposed to editorialize on my post. Read the rules!
~ Kathy ~
 
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Katie1723:
Not in the least…and you weren’t supposed to editorialize on my post. Read the rules!
~ Kathy ~
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Can you point these rules out and besides your wording is an invitation for some sort of response on a Catholic Forum…naturally.
To say you like a
hefty dose of Starbucks…and YES, I KNOW they support Planned Parenthood.
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is begging for a response here on Catholic Forums…in fact I think your response is more than brazen!
 
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contemplative:
Can you point these rules out and besides your wording is an invitation for some sort of response on a Catholic Forum…naturally.
…is begging for a response here on Catholic Forums…in fact I think your response is more than brazen!
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Thank you! I appreciate your comments. But if you read the first post I believe it was said there: **One rule: No editorializing on anyone else’s choices…**and this too:. **Let’s not reward honesty with condemnation… **
And yes you are right, brazen pretty much describes me at times. So you were right on with that. Now you take care and perhaps we can discuss my shortcomings over “a spot of tea” sometimes ~ Kathy ~
 
I have to say my indulgence is definitely Starbucks, too. I just about go crazy if I can’t have one at least every other day! :eek:
 
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Katie1723:
My "guilty pleasures " are Books , music and a hefty dose of Starbucks…and YES, I KNOW they support Planned Parenthood.

~ Kathy ~
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Oh no, I didn’t know that.:bigyikes: Now I am going to cringe when I drink my Starbucks coffee (home-brewed from Starbucks grinds). How do they support Planned Parenthood? I DO love my Starbucks coffee so. But I vehemently dislike Planned Parenthood. :crying:
 
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Katie1723:
Now you take care and perhaps we can discuss my shortcomings over “a spot of tea” sometimes ~ Kathy ~
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It won’t be over a cup of StarBuck tea.
 
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contemplative:
It won’t be over a cup of StarBuck tea.
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Starbuck’s COFFEE perhaps or do you want to “name your poison”?
~ Kathy ~
 
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