Donuts for Dinner- "because I'm the mother"

This only happened once that I can think of, but I do remember a time
when my mother had a sweet sugary snack, the kind of thing us kids
were not allowed to have except on special occasions, and she had it
RIGHT BEFORE DINNER. This was a shock to us, my health-food eating,
wheat germ sprinkling mother having some chocolate dipped pastry thing
at such an inappropriate time. The kind of thing she would never let
*us* do (but Grandma probably would! More on that in another post)
but she herself did that one time. So of course, I asked her why she
got to eat junkfood instead of say, brussel sprouts and I will never
forget her reply- "because I'm the mother!". She then proceeded to
explain that when I'm a grown-up living in my own house I can have my
own rules and do whatever I want (but until then, vegetables). I
became fascinated with this idea, that adults got to do all of the fun
stuff. (Little kids don't fantasize "someday I'll have to pay a
mortgage and taxes and have ultimate responsibility for other little
people's lives!") And of course, I imagined that I would have donuts
for dinner every night.

Fastforward twenty-some-odd years, and you know, I don't think I've
every had donuts for dinner! But every once in awhile I do experience
a fleeting sense of glee that I *could* do it if I wanted to. And
it's weird, now I *am* the mother, and I'll probably have these same
sorts of conversations with Lauren one day soon, who will in turn wish
she were 18 and living the sweet life but won't realize her peas and
carrots days are not so bad.