Every morning I have four children leaving my house within three different shifts. My oldest daughter leaves at 6:45am, my oldest son leaves around 7:40am and my twins leave at 8:00am.

So for about three hours we have a lot of things going on.

Breakfast for my oldest children is an everyday struggle. Neither of them want to eat before they leave the house any more—which I can’t stand.

I am a big fan of everyone eating breakfast I don’t care how old a person is.

It sets the pace for the rest of the day. I am hardly awake and I am in the kitchen making my coffee and figuring out what it is I am going to eat. I used to get so irritated with my mother growing up because she used to enforce the whole breakfast eating issue with us. She didn’t care what I ate as long as I had something– Spaghetti-o’s, a grilled cheese, and a can of Dr. Pepper—that was my usual breakfast in high school.  Now I cannot imagine eating such things, let alone for breakfast.

They always say you repeat what your parents do and I am definitely a believer of that now. Ask me when I was younger if I wanted to be anything like my mom and I would have just rolled my eyes and said ‘No way!’

I can barely get them to sit at the table, let alone eat. So, what I do is pack snacks for them to eat during the day. I also get a little something ready for them that they can eat while they are getting ready or take in a baggie or container for the bus.

I used to be afraid they wouldn’t eat it and just be wasteful, but they always come home and thank me for sending them with breakfast and snacks. After all, it’s the most important meal of the day.