I was in the grocery store and heard this conversation:

8-year-old Boy: “Will you buy this?”

Mom: “What is it?”

Boy: “I don’t know.”

Mom: “Sound it out or I won’t buy it.”

Curiosity got the better of me and I looked to see what he wanted her to buy. Aw, who am I kidding … there’s no way I wouldn’t look.

Surprise! He wanted Froot Loops.

I was oddly torn as to how I felt about this. On the one hand, I LOVED that she was engaged in her son’s reading education and giving him real-life reasons to practice. Heck … I wrote a book about ways to get kids to love to read doing those same types of things. [Shameless plug here for Reading Maniac — Fun Ways To Encourage Reading Success ... only 99¢ on Kindle. That's a picture of my adorable son on the cover. Thank you. Now back to your previously scheduled program, already in progress.]

But on the other hand, it was Froot Loops. Breakfast candy. Unnaturally sweet, crunchy vehicles for preservatives and red dye.

I lost track of them in the store so I don’t know if Boy sounded it out or not. Maybe if I had some closure, I’d know better how I felt about this slice of grocery store drama.

Maybe he did sound it out. Maybe he plopped himself down in the middle of the aisle and rattled off every one of those unpronouncable chemicals. Then, as his reward, his mom let him … eat every one of those unpronounceable chemicals. Hmm.

Or maybe he didn’t. Maybe it was Mom’s secret plan all along, knowing he couldn’t/wouldn’t sound it out and she’d be let off the hook and wouldn’t have to … say “no” and do her job as a parent. Hmm.

I guess closure wouldn’t have helped.

I’m going to pretend this is what happened:

8-year-old Boy: “Will you buy this?”

Mom: “What is it?”

Boy: “I don’t know.”

Mom: “Let’s look at some of these words. First, ‘Froot’ is spelled wrong … it should be ‘f-r-u-i-t.’ Hey, I know! Let’s go get some of that instead. I’ll buy you whatever kind you want.”

What do you think? Should Froot Loops be the reward for reading?