Starting our kids off WRONG

Nich0le

Bottom line.. most school lunches average $2.50 per day. Our hot lunch program went from 2.25 to 2.50 2 years ago and the school recieved loads of complaints from parents about the cost of lunches. At 2.50 a day the average cost per month is $40 per child. If we want our kids to have truly healthy options at school we need to be willing to increase or even double lunch costs. What can you feed your kids for 2.50 a day that incorporates a truly healthy meal? Not too many options out there. However, a fair amount of those same complaining parents are willing to spend $5 a day on their coffee or restaurant prepared lunches. Priorities.

Everyone has very valid points, and if your kids don't have snack time or are able to eat a few pieces of apple between classes by a certain age kids should be able to go 4 hours between meals. That is a reasonable time frame.

Active or not, westerners, not just American kids, but western society as a whole need to make sure the generation growing up right now have the tools to grow up healthy. It is the parent's responsiblity to pass on as much knowledge as possible without terifying the kids into not eating. It is the parent's responsibility to insure their child has an active life and get their little bodies out from video games and tv because a lot of schools do not have PE everyday or even 2x a week, a lot of schools have less recess to allow for a "higher academic goal". If this is the case for your child then you, the parent need to find a way to get them moving, even if it's 30 minutes after dinner to ride bikes around the neighborhood or walk or if you are lucky, play at the park.

We are a society of blamers. No offense to anyone here. We can not rely on schools to teach our kids about life and academics and have our children compete with other countries that are far out pacing us academically. 20 years ago America was number one in education, our waist lines were smaller and schools were not expected to teach us all of lifes lessons then. Now we are fat and uneducated, ranking somewhere near 30 academically compared to other countries. We are falling behind academically and health wise and if we don't start taking some accountability for our own actions we will see a horrible predicted trend.

The trend is that this current generation of children is NOT expected to out live their parents due to obesity related health issues. Is this the legacy we want to leave behind? We have to change our relationship with food and teach our children to fuel their bodies with the right foods.

I agree with annaschaben that the temptation of a cheap treat is hard for kids to resist. Most of the schools in our area have banned such treats, the vending machines options are better as well, there is a milk one, sports drinks and water and "healthy snacks" like pretzels and things like that. That was all put into place by concerned parents petitioning the schools to get rid of soda machines and junk food and there was such an overwhelming response that the schools took notice and made the changes. Kids have to learn that there is always going to be temptation and that treats or sodas or whatever are just that, treats and should be eaten sparingly.

Changes to our school systems won't change until parents start to get involved, and not just a few parents, an overwhelming majority have to raise a stink for changes but when we combine our parental super powers we can make great things happen!

Anna_Banana

Well said, They main problem is that only about half (if that) of the parents seem to care. I go to parent conference meetings and the only parents you see there are the ones who don't really need to be there(for the most part), because they are good parents and teach their kids well and therefore the kids do well in school. The kids that are doing poorly, never have their home work done and have behavior issues have (typically) parents that don't give a crap, thus don't enforce good habits at home and don't go to pt conferences to find out what's going on. It's a major problem right now. I have a friend that is a basic example. She don't know why her kids do poorly in school and she don' t know about it until the end of the year when she gets the report cards. I ask her do you make sure every night your kid does his home work, No. Do you help your kids study for tests, No. Do you ask them how they did on a project, no. Did you go to parent teacher conference, no. She has failed her child.

My husband is an awesome teacher and truely goes the extra mile for any student, who is willing to work, and a few that aren't. He wants to make every child succeed. He teaches upper level math coarse and the kids need to be pretty involved in the class to succeed, and it never fails every semester he will say he's so glad that it is PT conference because he really needs to talk to someones parents, and it never fails, that the parents he needs to talk to never show. I feel bad for them. It would suck to have parents who didn't care enough for you to show up for a half hour just to make sure you're doing okay.

Back to nutrition. The school my kids now go to is much better about not offering snacks (although my kids where only allowed to get them on their B-day at the other school) and there are no vending machines except for poweraid, water and juice.

GoGetterMom

Here administration can make a 6 figure salary, if they have been there long enough. Teachers start out around $23,000 a year. What's crazy is that we pay $2 something for the kids meal and then the state gives them $1.50 or some thing like that for the food program for lunch per kid. Our lunches here aren't too bad. One thing that I'm not sure is good or bad is that they do have a salad bar, which one of my kids would rather just eat a salad than anything else, what I think is bad is that they get to use ranch on everything because of the salad bar. The last thing my kids need on pizza is ranch.

When I was in school (elementry) the teacher sat at your table and you had to eat a good portion of your food before you could go out to recess. And you had to take the veggies and eat some of them. But our typical meal was a meat, veggie, starch, fruit and desert. So like smothered steak, carrots, bread, pears, rice krispy bar and milk. Not great, but not totally bad. The last school my kids when to they offered fruit snacks and fruit roll-ups to the kids that they could buy for 50 cents after they had their lunch (and if you got free or reduced lunches it was free). That just totally pissed me off, because I would see kids not eat their lunch and go get a sugary snack. Also if the kids didn't want what was being served they could just get a pre-packaged PBJ, which is a joke. I strongly beleave that they need to learn to eat a variety of food. One of little girl's friend at PBJ's every day, which wouldn't be too bad, but she also lacked parenting and probably at PBJ or hot dogs most nights.

I considered home schooling, but 1 my husband is a teacher, and 2 we do live in a small area and have very good teachers. At one point I knew about the quadratic formula and how to derive the area under a line, but there would be know way I could teach my kids about it. And at one point I was awesome in physics and chemistry, but I just wouldn't be able to do my kids justice, and they might not ever need that stuff in the real world, but I want them to go to college and be able to do that sort of stuff when they get there, and even though I took it all in high school and college I'm not sure I could teach it.

I've gotta kid in college! (and I am not genius) You could home school. You have a teacher right in your own home for help. My husband's family were hardline anti-home schoolers because one of their sons is a gifted-ed teacher who has won many national accredidations. They've totally changed what they think. Not because of what I said, but what they see (in my kids).

Marla64

WOOT-- WOOT-- WOOT-- HOMESCHOOLING WORKS!!!!

Wooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:bigsmile:

Marla64

(don't do it Marla-- don't do it)

Well, okay, here's what I think-- I think our "obesity" epidemic is because our kids are either in school all blinkin' day on their behinds, in after school programs, daycares and on video games instead of being outside playing and riding their bikes like we were as kids.

I wasn't a fat kid UNTIL age 10 when my mother went back to work fulltime, turning me into a latchkey kid who ate unsupervised, and sat around and watched TV 'cause no one was there to tell me get my butt outside and play.

I think it's less about what the kids eat. Heck, all the skinny girls in school when I was a kid still ate Twinkies, but they were active so it all came out in the wash. Me? I ate a Twinkie and got fat. It's about the supervision they have and what they do with their free time.

I think it's outrageous my kid CAN'T get a soda in school if he wants one because the schools are so nutty about this topic that all sugar and fat is off limits. It's madness. I think the schools job is to teach Readin', Ritin' and Rithmetic, not dictate what our children eat. That's my job.

I some what agree, but I don't think kids shouldn't get to just have soda it should be something special they get only occationally, and I do feel that the school does have to teach kids about nutrition, because hell the teachers there see my kids 8 hours a day. After they sleep 9 hours and are in transport another 2, that leaves only 5 hours they are with me, of which time they are doing chores, homework, and bathing. Also there are a lot of kids in this country that the only nutrition they get is at school, and there are a lot of kids that eat 2 out of 3 meals at school. So the school is the main place they learn about nutrition

Well, yes, I'll agree the kids are in school all blinkin' day-- but I will not agree that the school's job is anything but to teach them academically. And wil leave it at that-- this is a nutrition forum, after all.

Have a great day--

(breathes a sigh of relief that she avoided adding two more cents to this discussion and ticking more people off with her black and white view of the world)

It's not the kids with good parents I'm worried about. Like I mentioned before I'm talking more about society as a whole.

I mainly started this to get people thinking. So far it's worked. Go ahead and add your 2 cents. You won't tick me off.

Well, you're sweet-- thank you. I guess what the bottom line of this for me is the power that "the people" have given to teachers, lawmakers, et cetera to decide what's best for our children. The tangent I'm leary of straying down is the one where the beginnings of it all has its roots on women returning to the work force-- that's why I'm going to be very carefully choosing my words.

However, to try and stay as bland as I can, BECAUSE so many children are away from parents so much, and for so many hours of the day in day care, after school programs, et cetera, and because of so much inept parenting, the schools have decided that SOMEBODY has to teach our children "this and that." And so they've rushed in to fill their presumed need, whether it be nutrition, sex education, social issues-- and parents, either too tired, stressed, clueless or apathetic have rolled over and allowed it.

A handful will rise up, but the majority stay silent and let the PC crowd take over, and engineer the kids. The argument that because "some" parents are inept ALL children must be protected is crap, in my opinion. This isn't just in schooling, its with the lawmakers as well-- mandatory seatbelts, car seats, helmets, immunization. Don't get me wrong. I use all these, have my kids use them, and immunize my kids because I think it's the wise thing to do. BUT, if I DIDN'T do these things, what right has the government or anyone else to tell me what do do?

Getting back to nutrition and schools, my eldest is in high school, I homeschool the rest. I have no problem with him having a soda and fries. I buy soda and fries. It's not a steady diet of it, but we do certainly eat "bad" food now and then, and enjoy. The fact that he can't buy one at school isn't something I'm willing to write my congressman over, let me make that clear, but it's just one of those little annoying things that schools do to try and force their positions on us. I find it irksome. I'd much rather they simply stick to teaching, as I said, "reading, 'riting and 'rithmetic."

So, I'm not willign to lay the blame on the schools, I will place it on parents. And I'm not comfortable looking to the schools to seek to solve the problem-- again, look to Mom and Dad.

pecksun8

The one thing that I notices while I was over in Germany, is that most regular people do not have big refrigerators, most don't even have a big enough ice box to hold ice cubes. The majority of people walk, or ride bikes to get where they want to get because cars and gas are expensive. Most people live in small communities that have everything they need. Fresh bakery, Butcher, Dairy, and small grocery stores that don't carry all the crap like we do in ours. They mostly make or have fresh food because they don't have the room in the kitchens or the fridges. So it's normal to go to the store a couple times a week.

Some of the local germans in my shop would pay us to go get big bags of doritos for them because they (at the time) didn't have snacks like that in the grocery stores. Their snacks are not as loaded with stuff as ours our.

I miss that about germany.

Marla64

That sounds cool.

Anna_Banana

I totally agree that moms entering the work force is part of the problem.

I had the pleasure of staying home with my kids till they started school. I have 2 BS degrees and could have had a very good job coming out of college, but when it came down to raising my kids I decided that no one could do it better than myself. Of coarse staying home I had everybody asking if I could also watch there kids so I ran an in home daycare also. I felt so bad for some of those kids. They were at my house 10 hours a day. I spent more waking time with them than their parent. After our youngest started school my husband took a job in the town neighboring his home town, and we moved. I had no choice but to get a job, because we can't sell our home because of the crumby housing market here and we have to rent a house, and there is just no way for us to make it on a teacher's salary (NE is like one of the bottom 3 states in teacher pay).

Back to the vending machines in school. I think it comes down to in moderation pop (or other junk) can be okay, but there were some kids drinking a 12 pack a day. Their parents didn't know about it or didn't care, and that is a problem. Then parents complain about the over weight kids and how it's the schools fault for making the kids fat. So the school just eliminates the problem by getting rid of the pop. It's kind of like one bad apple spoils the bunch. Or like the parents that sue McDonalds for making their kids fat.

ChubbyBunny

I didn't read everyones posts, but here is just a tidbit.

I never liked school lunch, ever.
However, as a teacher, I've noticed that a lot of schools view their lunch programs differently.
Where I student taught (a tiny farm school), the food was still all freshly made that morning! Where I taught my first year, it was generic lunch room food, with a pizza, and anemic salad option (brand new school). Where I am now, it's tragic. Worse salad then before and disgusting food (ALL pre made and shipped here), another farm school. I almost freaked out when my students came in with a hot pocket (from the school breakfast line)!

The one cool thing about my school, they now have HUGE baskets of fruit (sometimes veggies) out during the day. I am a lenient teacher and allow them to grab fruit and eat in my class (IF they can keep it picked up).

I also attended a conference this summer (home ec teacher here)and there are programs in some states that will come into the school and revamp their entire cafaterria plan. Making meals more nutritionally sound. The big thing, change doesn't happen if people don't force it.

I can't say whether what kids eat/don't eat/when they eat at school is the problem, but I think there is room for improvement. Cause as much as I would LOVE to send my kiddo to private school, I am a single mom, working full time (as a teacher in a public school) who can't afford that option. The only way public schools will change is if someone raises cain about it.