Please silence your cellphones

I think I may be the worst Mom of all time. I have a 12 year old, and a 9 year old, and TODAY was the first day they went to see a movie in the theater.

But in my defense, we rarely even watch tv or movies at home. And neither kid has ever really asked to go to the theater; they’d much rather go for a hike or to the symphony. But today was a lazy kind of day, and we figured it was as good a time as any to see a movie.

One of the reasons we’ve never been is because it’s always seemed like such a hassle to me. We had never been to a movie theater before the kids were diagnosed because Walker was barely even 5 back then, and that seemed much too young to me to see a movie. And then she was diagnosed, and the logistics of it all seemed more than I could manage. And then just as I thought I could figure it all out a year later, Ollie was diagnosed. Fast forward a couple years, and this normal childhood activity had yet to been introduced.

You might not think it, but we had to take diabetes into account during our 2 hour adventure today. Both kids were a bit on the higher side before we went into the theater, so everyone was encouraged to take a bathroom pitstop along the way. When most kids would stock up on popcorn, candy, and a soda, ours were allowed a medium sized popcorn and a water (but neither kid even likes soda anyway, so that one’s a non-issue). We had to bolus for the popcorn, taking into account the fact that their blood sugars were already running a bit high, as well as the fact that we were going to be sitting stationary for a couple hours.

Any guess on the carb count for a Medium sized popcorn? You’d think not much, right? Three cups of airpopped popcorn (at home) runs about 15 grams of carbs. At the movie theater, however, a medium popcorn is 50 grams of carbohydrate! At least, that’s what the Harkin’s nutrition label states.

The kids had a blast. Walker did have to go to the bathroom mid-movie (and was surprised when there wasn’t the option to hit pause while she stepped out, “what do you mean the movie will keep playing while I go pee?”), but all in all it was a success. Blood sugars were definitely on the high side still when we left the theater. Next time we will plan ahead a bit more and be a bit more aggressive on the popcorn bolus. Or, maybe we’ll simply bring our own snacks for the show. We are constantly making accommodations to an otherwise “typical” activity in order to make it accessible for our family.