Count Chocula

When was the last time you bought breakfast cereal? Recently? You wouldn’t be the only one. Most of us did. Grocery stores have a massive selection – usually an aisle with an entire wall of amazing choices. There’s everything you could possibly want, from the super healthy to those wonderfully appealing sugar-coated cereals that taste great, but may or may not be totally devoid of any nutritional value. That’s hard to say, but it’s the latter category that always catches my eye.

Since childhood my personal favorite has always been Frosted Flakes. I would love to believe it’s good for me, but if it’s not, I really don’t want to know. My children’s preferences were, to the best of my recollection, Barbie Cereal and Count Chocula. They begged a blue streak for them every time they accompanied me to the grocery store. Now before you cereal purists throw your hands in the air in exasperation, I should tell you that I never actually bought either one of those cereals. I fed my children oatmeal. That’s true. My children had a deprived childhood. They still hold it against me.

It pains me to say that as of this moment I have no fun breakfast cereals in my cupboards. It’s depressing. I’m going to have to go out and buy some.The deprivation and self-denial is getting to me. And so to all of my readers, parents in particular, I say next time you’re walking down the grocery store cereal aisle aghast at the vast array of highly sweetened, child-friendly choices, go ahead and throw caution to the wind. Pick something exciting, even if it’s just once. It won’t kill you.