That Gummy Vitamin Jar I Bought Three Months Ago That’s Still Half Full
I knocked it over this morning digging for a granola bar behind the cereal boxes. A dozen or so gummies rolled across the kitchen floor, I stepped on one with my sock, and it’s still squished under the couch by the table, I haven’t bothered to scrape it up yet. That’s how most of my well-intentioned parenting habits go, honestly. Especially when it comes to this stuff, vitamins for my two, 8 and 12, smack in that whole 7 to 14 range that feels like it’s just one giant confusing in-between.
I bought the jar after that back-to-school parent pickup chat, remember? All of us were huddled under the awning waiting for the bell, and that mom whose kid is in my older son’s class was going on about how her 11 year old only eats cheese pizza and saltine crackers, so these gummies are the only thing keeping him from getting scurvy or whatever. I nodded along, because that’s exactly my house. My 8 year old eats nothing that isn’t beige: plain pasta, Goldfish, chicken nuggets, the occasional banana that’s not too spotty. My 12 year old skips breakfast half the time because he’s too busy scrolling TikTok under the covers to get up early, and says salad tastes like “leafy lawn clippings” so he won’t touch it. By the time I got home that day, I’d ordered the big jar off Amazon, $18, organic, no added sugar, it said. Turns out they still taste like fake cherry Kool-Aid, go figure.
First week I was so good about it. Reminded them every morning right after they sat down for breakfast. My daughter would beg for two, said it’s candy, I’d have to fight her to not dump the whole jar out. My son would roll his eyes so hard I swear he sees his brain, mumble “that’s baby stuff” and grab his backpack and bolt out the door before I can push it at him. I felt like such a nag. Then I’d forget a day, then feel guilty about it, then make them take two the next day to “make up for it” which I’m pretty sure is not how vitamins work, but no one’s called CPS on me yet, so whatever.
Last fall when we had his parent teacher conference, his teacher mentioned he nods off in math first period. I left there panicking, right? Got home, googled “tired 12 year old low vitamin” at 11pm after they went to bed, and of course the first thing that popped up was iron deficiency, super common in pre-teens who don’t eat red meat. Which my son doesn’t. Won’t touch a hamburger, says it’s “gross and chewy”. So I ordered these liquid iron drops, $12 more, they smelled like metal and turned everything black if you left them sitting too long. I tried putting them in his smoothie once, he took one sip, knew something was up, poured the entire thing down the sink and said I was trying to poison him. Drama queen, that one. The iron bottle’s still under the sink, expired now I think.
My sister’s a pediatric nurse, over for dinner a month ago, saw the half-full gummy jar on the counter, laughed at me. Said most of the time, this whole vitamin thing for this age group is just parent marketing. If your kid eats even four different foods, they’re probably getting enough of what they need from regular food. But then she admitted she buys vitamin D for her two, 9 and 13, because we live in the Pacific Northwest, half the year it’s gray and rainy, no one gets enough sun, and the kid’s pediatrician actually recommended it. Said it’s cheap, easy, doesn’t hurt anything.
That tracks, honestly. I think the problem is this age: you can’t force stuff like you could when they were 3, sitting in their high chair, you just pop it in their mouth and they swallow. Now? If they don’t want it, they’ll hide it, or throw it away, or yell at you for being controlling. I found a whole handful of melted gummy vitamins under my daughter’s bed when I changed the sheets last month. She’d hidden them there to eat later, forgot, and they got all sticky and glued to the ear of her stuffed rabbit. I had to cut a little chunk of the fur off to get it off. That’s the kind of mess no one shows you on the parenting reels, right? All those perfectly organized countertops with labeled vitamin bins, no sticky melted gummies anywhere.
I threw away the iron drops a couple weeks ago. Stopped reminding them about the gummy vitamins every single day. The bottle of vitamin D drops is by the coffee pot, I just put a drop in each of their morning milk, they don’t even taste it. That’s the only routine I’ve managed to stick to, because it’s easy, no fuss, no eye rolling.
The gummy jar’s still half full, sitting back behind the granola bars now. Sometimes when I remember, I’ll slide it across the counter and they’ll each take one. Sometimes I forget for a whole week. The other day I caught my 12 year old sneak one when he thought I wasn’t looking, because he actually likes the cherry ones, he’s just too cool to admit it. My daughter still begs for extra, I usually give her one extra, what’s the worst that can happen?
I don’t know. I used to think I had to get all this stuff right, that if I skipped a few days of vitamins my kids would end up with some weird deficiency or grow up wrong. Now I think most of the time, we just buy this stuff to feel like we’re doing something, when really all the messy, half-forgotten habits are just normal. I paid $18 for half a jar of gummy candy basically, and a sticky rabbit ear, and a little bit of peace of mind that I’m not totally messing up. That’s more than I can say for half the stuff I’ve bought as a parent, anyway. (Word count: 1127)
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