I often feel like my husband and I are in the vast minority and it's getting harder and harder. Here's what I mean. We buy almost all organic food, especially dairy and produce. Our kids don't eat meat so that's a non-issue. We don't let our children drink soda, eat candy, load up on sugar, live on Happy Meals or other varieties of fast food, or supplement meals with ice cream and desserts. Admittedly, they have had tastes of all of the above upon occassion. We haven't issued a strict ban, but as a whole our children eat healthy balanced meals and snack on fruit or vegetables and drink water.
We were at the mall the other day and I was watching other parents interact with their children, especially around the food court. I was watching parents dole out snacks in the strollers as they were shopping. Here is what I saw. Children that looked to be as young as 1 drinking soda out of a sippy cup. Kids given donut holes and bags of chips to snack on. Parents buying bags of candy and chocolate from the candy stand and then placing them on the stroller tray for their child to snack on. I admit that I could have caught them on their once in a lifetime moment, but it just seems that with increasing frequency I see kids eating junk and then have to explain to my children that while that may be okay for them to eat in their family it is not okay in ours. My almost-3 year old understands as best she can but all my 1 year old understands is that he wants what they have and he wants it now.
Obviously it is that parents choice what they feed their kids, but then I look around and see all these fat, lazy kids who turn into fat, lazy teens who become fat, lazy adults who then raise their own fat, lazy kids. I would never tell another parent what to give their kid to eat although I may be screaming it inside my head, but at what point does constantly feeding children fat and sugar and cholesterol become a form of child abuse?
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