Travel Size

I'm sure everyone has things they swore they'd never do as a parent, only to end up doing them. Things like "I'll never park my kids in front of the TV, not for any reason" and "I'll never reward my kids with candy". And one The Mailman and I firmly agreed on; We will never, under any circumstances, buy our children gummy bear vitamins. The Mailman loves gummy bears, he buys them three pounds at a time, so it's not like he has anything against them. The problem comes from mixing the idea of candy and medicine, a definite no-no. Like business and pleasure, these two must never meet.
I don't know what happened, exactly. I can't remember anymore if it was because of the omega-3 fish ones or that the vitamin ones were the only kids' vitamins I could find with no artificial colors. The details are unimportant. For the last year or so, I have broken my own vow and given the children gummy vitamins. Every time The Mailman hears them exclaim "Yay! Vitamins!", he shoots me that Look. You know, the one that says simultaneously "I'm disappointed in you, you've gone against me, I told you so, this is exactly why I was against this, and you've possibly ruined the children." Most of the statements in the Look I can get behind as being true and he has a point, but ruined the kids? Please! I haven't ruined them, I'm making them strong and healthy. They will thank me for years to come, and when they do, I will remind them that Dad didn't want them to have gummy vitamins and omega-3 fish. That will teach him to include ruining them in the Look.
But then again, maybe he's right. I had to admit this to myself when we were at Target last night. Not for any of the reasons he thinks, no. Normally, I buy these offensive supplements how I buy most things--in a giant container from Costco, with one of their coupons when I can. As far as the children are concerned, this is the "normal" size. I guess it was this that prompted Miss P, upon walking past the gummy vitamin display, to pick up a truly "normal" size bottle of them and declare with surprise and giddiness, "Mommy, look! Travel size gummy bears! We can get this for when we go on a trip!" I didn't correct her. I just hung my head in shame and tried to catch up to The Mailman as he searched for a giant bag of gummy bears.