It used to be that after carefully forming said comparisons, I would corner the nearest helpless victim as I launched a monologue on everything that is wrong with the world today.
But that was before I started blogging. My husband is so happy now.
If you're reading this, consider yourself a victim, though unlike my husband, you can escape me just by clicking your way out of here. I just wanted to warn you the launch is about to start.
And the topic of today's monologue is
Kid's Snacks: "Come On People, It's Gotten Way Out of Hand!"
It seems that everywhere my kids go, from Sunday School to the soccer field, they are fed snacks. Now what's wrong with kids having a little treat when they meet with other kids?
Well, nothing in and of itself. It's just the way the whole thing has permeated into every part of their lives and kind of taken on a life of its own.
For example, when I was a kid, my brother played T-ball. There were no team mothers passing out food and drink after the game. I think there may have been a water cooler and some cups.
When my Dad coached Little League, it was much the same, except there was one season the man who owned a neighborhood market offered a cold canned drink to all the boys on the team after every win. I went to all the games with my Dad, riding in a truckbed with the boys, and remember what a treat it was to stop at the store and get to drink a Pepsi from a can. Dad's team lost only one game that year. I don't remember the game at all, just riding home in the truckbed afterward, flying past the store where we had stopped after every game before.
About fifteen or so years later, when Brother (my son, not my brother) played T-ball, parents were asked to take turns supplying cold drinks for the players after each game. That wasn't so bad and it actually had some logic to it. On hot summer days, kids are really thirsty after playing hard. No big deal.
Fast forward another ten years. Sissy is almost five and is , as my Dad has put it, "....crazier about a ball than any boy we've ever had in the family". Naturally we sign her up for T-ball.
To our surprise, the post-game parent-supplied treat has expanded to include food as well as drink. This was a little hard to understand. Cold drinks make sense but who feels like eating a Ho-Ho after getting all hot and sweaty? Apparently, kids everywhere.
And now, welcome to 2007, the Golden Age of Snacks. If you're lucky enough to be a kid playing sports today, after each game you'll not only get a drink, you'll get a CHOICE of not one but TWO insanely expensive, individually packaged goodies!!
Can't decide? Oh, that's OK honey.... you can have one of each . (?!?!?!)
For the love of Pete will somebody look at the trend here? My grandchildren's post-game treats are going to be seven-course meals at this rate!!
And I'm sorry to say, this "snacking phenomenon" has insidiously crept into the church.
Back in the day, if you were a child in the Pre-School Department at church, you got a snack during Sunday School . There was no " I don't like this kind, what else have you got?" either. You were darn glad to get that Kool-Aid and Ritz crackers.
Once you left the Pre-School wing and start hanging with the big kids though, you're snacking days at church were over.
Not so any more. At our church, no one except nursing infants ever has to eat breakfast at home on Sunday morning. If you can wait until you get to church, someone always brings doughnuts.
Now I'm not ready to take a stand against doughnuts at church. After all, if we didn't have them, what would I dunk in my coffee during Sunday School?
I'm just saying when you step back and look at it objectively, it really is crazy the amount of eating and snacking we do as a society, especially considering that most of the world is going hungry.
Also consider the growing incidence of childhood obesity that we keep hearing about in the news and our society's love of food. Combine that with the way we feel we should indulge our children, and I don't think it's going too far out on a limb to say we're snacking our kids to death!
But that's just me.
I'm stepping down from my soapbox now.
You are free to go.
2 comments:
Hey I am with you when it comes to snacks at every children event. I feed my children before every church activity but they also have snacks once they get to church.
They sometimes tell me that they don't want dinner before returning to church on Sunday nights.
I teach 3rd-4th grade sunday school and last year my boys asked when am I going to start bringing snacks. I was floored. This is definately a snack generation.
Thank you Hadias, I'm glad somebody agrees with me:)
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