Sorry this is long. But I need to vent and get this outta my system.

OK my almost 14 year old son is visiting with his grandparents and aunt in the midwest for the summer. I just had this huge argument with my sister (said aunt) via text messages that she started by saying "Why do you let your son drink mt dew??????!!!!!" I reacted in a much different way this time than I usually would to her butting into my life/family. I stood up for myself and answered her honestly "We pick our battles. He is a great kid. We let him drink soda sometimes. We're not naive enough to think that kids his age aren't out there drinking beer and trying drugs. In fact we know they are. So just like when he was little we continue to choose our battles." She responded by insinuating that I am a bad parent. She said "You might as well be letting him drink alcohol. It's called parenting. You shouldn't let him do things that are not good for him."

Well then I sorta let my anger out a little, and I replied "I don't want to be hurtful. I say this as politely as I can. He is MY son. YOU are not a parent at all. So please butt out on this one, ok?"

She responded "I will not butt out on this one. You should not let him drink soda ever. Especially not mountain dew. You should not drink soda yourself either. You are ruining your child's health."

At this point, I turned off my cell phone. I just felt like she was being very hurtful to me and in a situation that isn't really any of her business. It's not like I mainline him soda for heaven's sake. He drinks it sometimes. He also drinks water, milk, orange juice, gatorade, apple juice, etc. He is a healthy boy, 6'2" tall, an honor roll student every semester, plays baritone sax in band, etc. I am SO proud of my son. He is the one thing in my life that I have never doubted that I have done a good job with. We have raised and continue to raise him up right.

ANYway. As I was talking about it with my husband, I was so upset and crying because she really hurt my feelings. And I realized something. I told hubby that this is the kind of thing that makes me want to go eat a huge bowl of ice cream. I think I would eat at a time like this so I wouldn't have to feel what I was feeling. I told him I'm not going to eat this time. I'm going to let myself feel this, and let myself cry it out, and then let it go. I don't need to eat this time.

This was a MAJOR thing for me to realize. I'll be telling t when I see her Tuesday for sure. I mean I've read it before, where people say they eat to push down their feelings, but I never really 'got' it. Until today. This is huge. It was also a major thing for me to stand up for myself to her in the first place. So, a couple big things today resulting from her text.

Whew, I feel better already putting it all down here. I guess I won't call my parents and tell them to put my son on an airplane home immediately after all. (That was my gut response to the whole argument!)

Thanks for listening if anybody made it this far!