About Food Nazi Moms
Tuesday, January 6th, 2009Ericka Anderson quotes Laura Bennett who says:
I just want to let the food Nazi moms in on what happens when your kids come to a house where junk food inhabits the pantry. They have no decision-making skills or sense of moderation when faced with the forbidden fruit roll-up. Like deprived animals, they are determined to consume the lifetime allotment of sugar they have been denied; all before pickup. I have seen one such child eat Swiss Miss Cocoa with a spoon directly out of the family-size container, only to move on to conquer a box of frosted strawberry Pop-Tarts.
…Sheltering children from every evil in the world does them a disservice; decision-making is a skill, learned with practice from the time they are small. At some point my boys will go out into the world and have to decide for themselves what is right and wrong. One would hope that by then they have ascertained that Krispy Kreme doughnuts are not really for breakfast…
Indeed.
Some of my kids friends have Food Nazi Moms and their reactions to Doritos is pathological. They shove into my pantry and consume chips and pretzels and Gold fish crackers like locusts.
How do you teach a child about good decision making if they never make decisions? Food is a dangerous thing to fetishize because people always have to eat. Obsessions around food rarely turn out well.
I remember a kid who ate nothing but McDonalds growing up. His mom wasn’t particularly domestic and my mom clucked about the malnutrition. Admittedly, the kids in that family looked sickly. He’s now a friend on Facebook and looks fit as a fiddle. He probably eats soy nuts and tofu sandwiches every day. I don’t know. I haven’t asked.
There have been patients who have the worst eating habits and need help. You wouldn’t believe what some people view as “healthy” nutrition. Still, when giving advice, I try to be balanced. Perfection can be challenging to obtain–if it’s even desirable or definable when it comes to food. All sorts of things thought to be healthy at one time are now considered off-limits (Wonderbread). Things that used to be considered unhealthy are now considered fine in moderation (coffee, wine, chocolate, fat).
Good rule: Eat food as close to the source and least handled as possible–salad, fruit, veggies, protein. The more processing, the less healthy. Still, one of the joys of life is having complex taste buds that can be delighted with something as bad for you as a Dorito or piece of chocolate cake. If 90% of person’s diet is healthy, 10% indulgence can make for balanced fun. And a child raised in a tolerant environment will be less likely to be obsessed and have issues as an adult.
Aside: Laura also mentions TV, computers, pop culture, etc. Nazis. Protection from a certain amount of junk food for the mind is also helpful, but obsession creates obsession. Kids are resourceful and the forbidden fruit tastes sweetest. I go for more of the “poison the pot” school of thought. That is, sit with them during Hannah Montana, say, and dissect in excruciating detail the superficiality, narcissism, and wrongness of some of the things therein. It sucks the joy right out of the experience to actually “see” what you’re watching. The other benign stuff, teach them moderation.
“Little Marxists”
Monday, December 15th, 2008Dr. Helen answers a question from a librarian/teacher about goose-stepping 4th graders and how to help kids get properly educated about such things as capitalism versus socialism.
In our kids’ school, the Third Grade project is starting a business, paying more rent for better space (the front classrooms), choosing partners, a product to sell, marketing it, etc. Well guess what? There’s much gnashing of teeth when a kid picks a slouch for a partner. There’s agony (even though the teachers try to spin it positively as our “civic duty”) when the teacher comes and collects the taxes from hard earned bucks. It’s a nice learning experience all the way around.
What would be an even better solution in my opinion is to create a socialist week, in all it’s mediocre glory. So everyone works as a group, makes a crappy product that no one wants to buy, two kids do all the work, but all the kids get the same pay and the government takes 80% of their income. Then, a kid decides he’s hurt his toe and can’t work but gets the same pay. If they work harder they only get a C.
If kids got to experience both capitalism and socialism, they’d make the right choice because socialism is inherently unfair, rewards failure, and is a disincentive to achievement and production. Kids are hardwired for fairness. They get it.
While I know education is important, I think how a kid is raised is even more important. A dull-witted parent emphasizing self-esteem over honest achievement will destroy the best school lessons. And a parent who emphasizes hard work and morality will inoculate against soft-headed ideas rooted in post-modern and Marxist philosophies.
Team sports help because there’s winners and losers. Individual sports help because there is only achievement. Getting a job during High School helps a kid manage his energy and money.
Marxism has to be taught and indoctrinated because it goes against natural law. It is antithetical to how men are wired and ignores basic psychology. Marxism sounds great on paper and stinks in real life. It feels good to believe in collective everything, but it falls flat in practice. That’s why any training about these philosophies needs to be taken out of the realm of theory and into real life.
Get a kid on a ball field or court and he’ll learn the concepts of talent, hard work and winners and losers pretty quickly. Let him makes some money and then have the government take half to spend how they see fit, and he’ll understand why excessive taxation is a disincentive.
Real life cures Marxists.
Cross-posted at RightWingNews and the Houston Chronicle
Generation Y: Self-Involved, Over-Indulged Babies
Monday, December 8th, 2008Generation Y: Self-Involved, Over-Indulged Babies
Pain in the arse co-workers, I say.
Sperm Donor Fathers 46 Kids
Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008Sperm Donor Fathers 46 Kids
Hope he’s a decent guy and not some sort of mutant.
“I just want my kids to be happy”
Monday, November 24th, 2008“I just want my kids to be happy”
How about this: “I just want my kids to be responsible and productive citizens and if they’re happy that’s a nice side benefit.”
Rachel Lucas: Stupid Kids Have Stupid Parents
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008Rachel Lucas: Stupid Kids Have Stupid Parents
It’s not just bad schools. Parents are the problem, too.
Another Symptom Of Our Pass-The-Buck Culture?
Saturday, November 15th, 2008Go watch this video and then come on back.
I’m going to assume you watched it. In our community, there are many ponds mostly for flood control and none of them have fences. We also have a gazillion kids running around–some even fish without adult supervision.
How much protection should the government have to provide and how much is the responsibility of the individual? Personally, I think it’s the parent’s responsibility to hold on to their kids in those dangerous situations.
What do you think?
Parents Propagandizing Their Children–Updated
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008Somebody taught their kid this. They wrote the lyrics, played the music, practiced and then performed this.
Barack Obama is just a man. Evidently, way too many people have a life absent of a real God.
Update:
Instapundit says: “Daddy says if we sing well enough, we might get an extra flour ration!”
More Dear Leader love from Rovian Conspiracy (more links, too):
Michelle Malkin says,”Who’s behind this? Hollyweird libs and MSM moguls, of course.”
Confederate Yankee has more about the weird and elites:
While described as a grassroots effort, Kathy Sawada, who posted the video and can been seen directing the children in the video, is a bit more than just an enthusiastic music teacher you might find in your average public school.
Sawada is a teacher at an elite and expensive Colburn School of Performing Arts in Los Angeles as part of the Piano faculty. Colburn just built a $120 million 12-story high-rise addition for their musicians.
Does a concert-quality musician in an elite school in the middle of the most ego-centric city in the United States count as a “grassroots” effort?
Here’s a partial list of those who helped produce this “grassroots” effort:
Jeff Zucker — American television executive, and President & CEO of NBC Universal.
Post-producer (former choreographer?) Holly Shiffer.
Motion picture camera operator/steadicam specialist Peter Rosenfeld (appropriately enough, worked in “Yes Man,” a movie about ” a guy challenges himself to say ‘yes’ to everything for an entire year.”
Darin Moran, another motion picture industry professional, who just finished filming — how appropriate — Land of the Lost.
Andy Blumenthal, Hollywood film editor.
Hmmmm…..NBC denies involvement. Of course they do.
Rachel Lucas, as usual, captures my queasiness, thusly:
That song reminds me of one thing and one thing only, and it ain’t hope or change. It’s church. Which I suppose is the exact idea because for today’s progressive leftist, there is no “church” anymore; there’s just Obama. He fulfills all the needs that they so derisively snark at religious people for when the religious get the same needs fulfilled by a deity.
Neither of which technique I can get behind myself, but it sure is fascinating to watch these people training their kids to worship a man while at the same time, odds are, they mock Christians for their blind faith and bible-clingin’. I guess the progressives think they’re evolved and enlightened because their clingin’ is all about a politician instead of an ancient deity, real or not.
Hebrews 11:1 defines faith: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
The problem with having faith in Obama is that his substance is suspect and his evidence isn’t good either–what evidence you can find. I guess that’s why liberals keep obscuring the evidence–as long as people don’t see it, they can deify him and have faith. Once he’s know, the religion is lost.
Cross-posted at RightWingNews.com
School Choice
Monday, August 25th, 2008Conversation with an acquaintance in anticipation of school starting:
Acquaintance: I’m not happy about my son’s class placement. Well, the teacher is good, but the kid who rubbed his penis against another kid and then peed on his leg last year is in my kid’s class.
Me: So ask to get your kid switched.
Acquaintance: Well, what do you think about Karma? You know, that he’s meant to be in that class?
Me: I think you need to get your kid switched.
Acquaintance: I was not really happy with Kid Genius’ education last year. He didn’t learn anything.
Me: He’s what 6 or 7?
Acquaintance: Yeah. These are the formative years. The FOUNDATION.
Me: No they aren’t. First grade is for fun. Really, elementary school is a waste, generally speaking.
Acquaintance: Do you really believe that?
Me: Yes. It should be a lot more fun than it is. I mean, can your kid read and comprehend what he’s reading? That’s all that counts, really.
Acquaintance: Yes…he can read, but I’m worried about his math skills.
Me: They’ll come.
Acquaintance: Yes, but he learned like nothing last year.
Me: It’s public school.
Acquaintance: But don’t you think they should learn something?
Me: In theory, yes. But it’s public school. I don’t have high expectations. In fact, brace yourself, because third grade is a black hole. My girlfriend’s kid went backwards last year.
Acquaintance: But I’m worried about academics!
Me: Obviously not too much, otherwise you wouldn’t have your kid in public school.
Acquaintance: But you have your kids in public school.
Me: Yes, and the administrators don’t like me much. And I home schooled last year because third grade stinks. And my kid is probably two years ahead in math. She won’t learn a thing this year.
Acquaintance: Doesn’t that bother you?
Me: It’s a trade-off. The private schools have their own problems as does home schooling. I can push academics at home. You could home school.
Acquaintance: Oh, I could never do that. I’d be crazy. But I did teach Boy Genius more math in one day than he learned all year.
Me: Yep.
Acquaintance: I don’t know what to do.
I probably wasn’t too supportive. In fact, I know I wasn’t. It’s a crap-shoot. Some years a kid gets a fantastic teacher. Sometimes the teacher is mean, or hates boys, or hates girls, or is lazy and apathetic, or is stupid. Or, and this is the case with third grade in Texas, the curriculum just stinks. No one wants to teach third grade. The year is spent teaching to the TAKS test and kids and teachers hate it.
And while the happiest I’ve been curriculum-wise was this last year home schooling, there are other trade-offs. Families have many choices to make. Anyone who opines dogmatically about home schooling or public schools or private schools or parochial schools seems to have an ax to grind, to me, since all choices have positives and negatives.
In some ways, I resent the pressure. When I was a kid, a parent’s character wasn’t called into question based on the schooling choice he made. (Well, home schooling families seemed a little strange–turns out they were just ahead of the curve.) Everyone went to public school or Catholic school. Each year, a bunch of rebels got kicked out of Catholic school, came over to public school and usually excelled at sports. That was the extent of choices. And I might have just been completely unaware, but I don’t recall many aspersions cast based on what school a kid went to. The bigger thing was the school district.
Not now. A good parent volunteers in a classroom so many hours per week. A good parent home schools. A good parent supports public school education. A good parent invests in their child’s future with private school.
In the scheme of life, does it make a huge difference? I really would like to know. Because what I see in the grown kids is this: there are good products out of every kind of education and the parents, not the schools, have everything to do with that.
Cross-posted at RightWingNews.com
Give That Guy A Drink!
Wednesday, August 20th, 2008College presidents want the drinking age lowered. From the Wall Street Journal’s Scott Hensley:
But now more than 100 college presidents and chancellors have signed a statement calling for politicians to consider lowering the drinking age in the face of widespread flouting of the law and a wave of dangerous binge drinking on campuses around the country.
The college officials liken the effect of the current drinking age to the failed experiment to ban alcohol for all during Prohibition. But supporters of the restrictions on alcohol say any loosening would lead to more deaths on the roads.
Color me cynical, but this strikes me as a way for colleges to avoid liability since it is their role to protect students–en loco parentis. If the drinking age is 18, then a kid can legally drink. It’s not the college’s fault or the frat’s fault that a student, abiding by the law, goes overboard. But when there is drinking and it’s illegal, the colleges and fraternities are not only condoning excessive behavior they are condoning illegal behavior.
This doesn’t mean that the drinking age shouldn’t be lowered, because it should be. The reason it should be lowered is simple: if a person can vote, enlist and get married, a person should be able to drink a beer which is a much smaller responsibility. People will cite brain research saying that 18 year olds are immature. If that’s the case, then why are they allowed to make other life-changing decisions.
There is a slight problem with this: 18 year olds (as I was) can be high school seniors which could encourage underage drinking in high school. I know more than one kid who spent his high school years drunk even with the 21 age limit, so that argument seems unjustified.
A kid who can make adult decisions should be able to have a drink.
Cross-posted at RightWingNews.com