I can't get over what people will feed their kids!

One day, one of my students (an older, married student) was going to have to miss class--he thought--because he didn't have child care, but I told him to bring his kid, who could keep busy in a desk in the corner during class.

He sat the kid down at a desk with a bottle of pop and a candy bar (his 'breakfast') and nothing to do. After the kid got hopped up on sugar, he got antsy, so I went to get him some paper and a pencil, so he could at least draw or try to find something to do.

I was appalled that this was the kid's BREAKFAST!
 
kgalas said:
This is what she packed:a lunchable consisting of crackers, bologna rounds, cheese, and chocolate chip cookies, a Trix yogurt that was blue and pink, a Kool-Aid Jammer juice drink, goldfish crackers, a cheese stick, and a few baby carrots w/gobs of ranch!!
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Those lunchables should be banned! They are so high in fat (and lots of it saturated), sodium and processed foods.
 
Funny, my mom was a total health food nut yet I crave Bic Macs & pizza every day. I don't eat the stuff, but I do crave it.
 
EricaH said:
Once they went to school, they were given candy by teachers/bus drivers as rewards ...
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That is one thing I absolutely HATE!

I was at a teaching workshop last year where the presenter talked about how she keeps a bowl of candy always in her classroom for 'rewards'. Why? What about parents who are trying to feed their kids right, and at school they get the message that candy is a reward? I wasn't brave enough to comment on it, but it really ticked me off.

I give my students rewards (yes, they're college students, but they sometimes get into it, especially in the beginning classes ;)) : stickers and buttons and pencils or pens with French slogans on. It's funny how 18-24-year-old students can get excited about a bunch of stickers with "Super!" "merveilleux!" "Très bon!" on them! And when they get pens, some of them start using them every day in class.
 
When my DS was in elementary school, the only thing he would eat for lunch was goldfish crackers, saltines and a piece of white loaf bread (and he bought his milk). So, every day that's all that was packed in his lunch. It never harmed him, imagine that!

He would always eat a good, nutritious dinner at home, so I just didn't worry about what he had in the middle of the day. He's fine. He actually grew up to be a healthy, 21 year old college student who will now eat anything!!:cool:
 
fit44 said:
I had my own paper route and spent a lot of my tip money at Ben Franklin on penny candy.:p
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Oh my gosh I remember Ben Franklin! It was amazing how much candy I could buy with $.50!!! I really loved those strawberry things that were wrapped in strawberry looking wrapper with the gooey middle!
 
elliemom said:
I have found through asking almost every parent I know, how they find time to be supermom. How do you get to sports, get dinner done, homework, shower, reading and bedtime in all before 8 pm. Guess what??????? They don't!!!!!!! They stop everyday for fast food, buy all the preprepared lunches and "lunchables", they put bags of cookies and candy in their lunch boxes etc!!! The homework is done too late for the kids to really do it right, bedtime is way too late so the kids are tired and no one plays outside anymore.
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My boys (7 & 10) are homeschooled and have been on some sports teams. Currently we are having baseball practice 3 nights a week. I spend a lot of time making food for the road. Right now they eat an early supper and then have some kind of organic bar and juice on the way home, but there are times when I have to pack meals for all three of us when we go somewhere. Makes me very glad that I am at home, because the temptation to take short cuts would be very high. We are vegan, eat organic and thankfully our homeschool group is one where the families believe in eating healthy and food brought for sharing is good stuff - often organic. Our culture right now is just saturated with ways to cut corners and all of them add to the growing numbers of unhealthy children in our country. It's really sad.
 
elliemom said:
Again, i am missing the hunor here. Is childhood obesity and long term vessel and heart disease funny????

ellie
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I am not laughing at the childhood obesity problem. What I'm laughing at is that I grew up eating crap and I'm a size 2/4 at the age of 46. My mother didn't buy the crap in the house, I bought it myself!
I think there are a lot of people who eat junk food who grew up without weight problems.

My boys buy their own junk food because they can drive to get it themselves. Does this make me a horrible mother???? I guess so:confused: I can preach until the cows come home, but it doesn't change anything.
It's not always black and white.
 
Don't worry Cynthia, apparently my mom was horrible too. Despite her shoving twinkies down my throat I developed a hankering for quinoa and tofu. Weird!
 
Let's not ignore the fact that there are many misleading commercials about HFCS.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEbRxTOyGf0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVsgXPt564Q

Some parents honestly do not know. Does this make them demons from hell?
Horrible parents? Hardly!!!!

I've spent a lifetime trying to figure what is healthy and what is not. We have a close friend who is a vascular surgeon and he feeds his kids this stuff! OMG, if he's clueless, what does this say about the average person?!

I'm still confused about a lot. The other day I had to look up the difference between fructose and high fructose corn syrup.:eek:
The latest food confusion for me was partially hydrogenated oils. I learned they are a trans fat. So how is it that a product can contain these trans fats and the nutrition label state is is zero trans fat? I had to google the answer.
There are a lot of people who do not have time to spend hours on the internet trying to figure this all out.
I can't believe all parents do not want the best for their children. Some parents fall short of being perfect.
 
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I think we are missing the point here though. This is not necessarily about weight, it is about health! Just because some have grown up on Chef Boyardee (or whatever his name is ;)), twinkies and soda and are in a size 2/4/6, haven't gotten any serious disease yet and are still alive doesn't mean this is the thing to do. We all know that smoking is bad for our health and still we all know someone who smoked like a chimney, ate crap and drank booze until they died of old age in their 90s.

I am not telling anyone what to do, everyone needs to decide what is right for them and for their kids. Maybe I have a little bit of a different perspective on things and maybe I am overzealous because my weight gain and lifestyle is what caused my cancer at 44 years old and I am not going to be tossing the coin with my kids' health.

I don't buy any trix yogurts, soda, candy, HFCS stuff, it's just not in the house and if the kids ask for it at the supermarket I just say "no". It's still me who makes the decisions, not them.

It is not that my kids haven't tried to convince me to get junk or refused to eat this, that or the other, I just don't let them get away with it. I will let them get junk food occassionally but I also explain to them why I prefer that they don't. Kids are teachable, it is harder with some than it is with others and if it sounds like my kids are just easier and not picky, I can assure you they are not, it has been a struggle and it continues to be a struggle.

That being said, the food 30 or 40 years ago was not as bad as the food kids get these days. There was not that much childhood obesity, diabetes, ADD, allergies, ADHD, depression, or you name it as there is these days.
 
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