Newsflash: Our kids are not fat because school lunches are horrible. Our kids are not fat because they watch TV ads about foods that are horrible. Our kids are not fat because the stores sell processed foods that are horrible.
You know, of course, that I am a highly trained scientists and I make these claims based on years of research, right? Okay, fine, I couldn’t be called a scientist even if I were wearing a lab coat and looking through a microscope and whatever it is scientist are looking at under there. And I haven’t done any research, either.
But I live in the real world, the one where parents take responsibility for their children on all fronts. And the last time I checked, my husband and I (right, mostly me) were the ones buying 95% of the food consumed by our children.
Do my kids eat complete junk on the day they buy school lunch? Yes they do. Am I happy about this? Of course not. Thus, they get a certain amount of money to spend on school lunches each month. If, in one week, they spend it all on Flamin’ Hot Cheetos and Sugar Muffins, they’ll be packing food from home for the next three weeks.
Do I buy potato chips and include them with my kids’ lunches on occassion? Yes I do. I’m not a fan of processed food and am trying like crazy to weed it out of our diet, but I’m human and busy and I’m sure not gonna fry up home-made potato chips on my own any time soon.
Still, I’m irked by the recent suggestion of President Obama to add a bazillion dollars to the school lunch plan. I’m irked by this idea not because I don’t believe our kids should eat healthier food–I do believe this, really!–but because I don’t believe this responsibility falls solely on the government or that adding cash to a government program will have the effect of making kids healthier. I firmly believe that if we expect our kids to make good food choices at school, we have to help them make good food choices at home.
Let me pause to clarify that this discussion, obviously, is not about kids living in poverty. Please don’t leave me a comment explaining that for some kids this might be the only meal of the day and gosh-darnit, it’s our government’s job to be there for them. I understand the implications for these children and both applaud and support organizations like Kids Food Basket, that work to make sure kids have another meal no matter what. I’m talking, here, about those of us who walk up and down the aisles of the grocery store with money in our wallets, deciding whether to buy grapes and oranges or grape soda and orange Cheetos.
Once again, let me stress that as parents I believe we totally have the right to choose the grape soda and orange Cheetos. What I don’t believe is that we should expect the bazillion dollar school lunch program to teach our kids to eat right. Or how to clean up after themselves. Or why they’d want to eat right in the first place.
That’s our job.
Agree? Disagree? Other suggestions?
