Just bring the kid a water already!!

Over the holidays my family seemed to go out to eat quite a bit more than usual. It is always a challenge to guess at carb amounts in those lovely restaurants that have no idea what you are talking about when you ask for a nutrition guide...or those 17 year old waitresses who give you the blank stare when you ask for one...or the gigantic binder they carry over to the table containing every last bit of info on every last crumb served in the entire building....yea...it makes for some fun times in the life of a diabetic. So, to make life easier on everyone I usually wind up just guessing the carb amount, crossing my fingers, saying a little prayer to the Gods of good blood sugars....and go from there. I've gotten much better at guessing over the years I suppose...trial and error will do that to ya.
Anyway, I witnessed a bit of humorous/annoying behavior over all of our outings lately that I thought I would share. Without fail, every single time the waiter/waitress would come to the table and ask Emma what she would like to drink....Emma would always say water....not because of her diabetes...not because I was forcing her to choose water...simply because she is and always has been a water drinking kind of girl. And without fail, every single time she asked for water...every single server would question her as to why she didn't want juice or pop instead. They would take it to the point of almost harassing her..like they were trying to make her feel weird for NOT choosing juice or pop. I used to always try to fight the battle for her and firmly but kindly say that YES she really honestly just wants water please. However, now that she is 7...I am kind of trying to give her the opportunity to stand up for herself more and speak up for herself more. So, I sat there time and time again and heard her say "YES...i DO want water please!"...with a tone of annoyance thrown in there for good measure. I have to say that I was proud of her.
After about the 4th time of this happening in the past couple of weeks, I got to thinking...why do these people feel compelled to push juice and soda on kids? Why do they practically force them into choosing something higher in sugar and not as good for them as plain old water? Don't get me wrong...Emma does drink juice and soda whenever she wants it...I have never denied her. Yes it is diet soda and usually the juice is actually crystal light just because I have a really hard time figuring out how to make regular juice not send her blood sugars soaring and then crashing yet. Seriously though, diabetic kids can drink or eat ANYTHING they want to...if they choose some drink with sugar in it and their parents are ok with it....then fine. If they choose water...then leave them the hell alone and bring them a damn water instead of harassing them and making them feel weird for choosing water!! As you can tell, this is a bit of a sore spot with me at the moment. I just am frustrated with the way some people behave I guess.
My husband came to the rescue though after Emma was venting her frustrations about the whole waitress/water/juice issue. He told her that the next time this happens she should look up at the waitress and calmly and matter-of-factly say, "no thanks, just water for me tonight...I'm driving!"
Yep...I married a good guy!