The Rear Facing Car Seat: Protecting my Kids and my Appetite

My kid's a mooch. Maybe this is unique to him but more likely it's typical toddler behavior.  Anyway, if he sees someone eating something, he wants it. Even when he doesn't really want it (which is particularly sad when you're eating something you really like and offer it to him only for it to be tasted enough for him to decide he doesn't like it which happens to also be just enough for you not to want to eat it after him). Because of this I may or may not, on occasion (see: frequently), eat food out of his line of vision (I refuse to call this "hiding while eating"). Maybe this is typical mom behavior, but more likely I'm just super-stingy with my food.

So, I was having a difficult day- a combination of sleep deprivation, a tantruming toddler, and a fussy baby.  I decided the perfect distraction from all of this would be to get out of the house and hit up Target for a random smattering of things. I grabbed one item at Target and then the remaining list of items I had committed to memory completely escaped me. I became more frustrated at that point than I had been when I resolved that getting out of the house would be a good remedy for frustration.

I debated about then walking down to the other end of the strip mall to find some books for Caleb at Barnes and Noble. Being exhausted, I decided I'd rather put both kids back in the car and drive there. Immediately following getting both kids snugly in their car seats, Caleb starts urgently yelling something unintelligable.  I made sure I hadn't pinched him in the buckle or that he hadn't hurt himself in some way, then realized he was yelling for a plastic ring/link thingermajig that I found sitting inches from his foot. I promptly returned it to him.  He calmed down.

At this point, I was in no mood to drive down to the bookstore, schlep both kids into the store, and so forth. Instead?  I made a beeline for the Golden Arches.  Nothing like some fries and a hot fudge sundae to make it all better. I ordered, paid, collected my happiness-in-a-bag, parked the car in the lot, and ate away my troubles. All while my mooch of a toddler was none the wiser in his rear facing car seat. A big thank you goes out to car safety experts who advocate keeping your children rear facing for as long as possible, in turn allowing me to wallow in self-pity and high-fat foods on-the-go, without sharing.

addendum:  Unfortunately, this may not go on for much longer.  Caleb is getting better at identifying scents and when the fry-aroma wafted into the backseat, he did request to "eat lunch" more than once.  Of course this still didn't convince me to share. Though I did offer him a healthy snack when we returned home.