Ashley said:
Bluezone777 said:
The government banning flavored milk and soda from schools to make kids eat healthier is much like putting a towel over a spill and saying it's clean. If they really want kids to eat better then they need to illustrate why they would want to bother with eating better by removing the desire to eat unhealthy food. Unfortunately, all that requires logic and common sense which is too much to ask for when it comes to school administrators and government officials.
Banning flavored milk? What? Never heard of that one before. We've always gotten to choose between regular milk and chocolate milk. I never really cared for regular milk, so I always went for chocolate. But that sounds even more stupid than the banning the soda. I mean, heck, I'm sure even flavored milk is good for you, and some kids even like flavored milk over plain milk, and that shouldn't be a problem, as long as they're getting the stuff they need, then it's fine.
I've heard of it happening, and it is much worse than that, with schools going as far as banning birthday parties (i.e. the classroom ones with cupcakes and pizza) and pizza parties in schools (like the ones that took place on the last day of school.) My mom said that some schools in Suffolk County have even banned parents from bring cupcakes from home, and are considering banning lunch being brought from home as well.
ManSkirtDude101 said:
Agree and besides isn't it some parents fault that they let there kids eat bad food for lunch and other times. Well not all the time....
Not necessarily, it is a crapshoot because sometimes a parent can do everything right and still, turn out having a kid with undesired results, case in point, teen pregnancy.
Many parents are strongly against this, even if, they themselves had ended up in this position and had a nightmare of a time raising their kid as a result. Furthermore, you have a lot of single and married parents, who busted their behind to make sure that their kids had everything they needed, and yet, that kid still could turn out doing the wrong thing.
In my neighborhood, a lot of the mothers work hard to make sure that their kids are taken care of, and they try to teach their kid to do the right thing, but that doesn't keep that kid from selling their ass on the street corner, selling or doing drugs, joining gangs, or screwing every Tom, Dick, Harry, Jerry, Paul and Tyrone and/or committing crimes.
Yes, having a firm hand might work, but it is not a guarantee. My mother and great-grandmother raised me with a firm hand, not because I was a bad kid, but because they knew that I was smart and would listen to them. They didn't want me becoming like the other kids in the neighborhood, and I didn't.
I've grown up with girls whose parents were just as firm, and taught the same values, and in turn, their kid rebelled and ended up doing the polar opposite. When the mother tried to teach their kid the importance of keeping your legs closed and waiting until having sex, the kid responding by screwing the entire neighborhood, including, her mother's second husband, in other words, her step-father, and in her own bed, no less. I know mothers who've lost their own husbands, sisters and brothers due to a life of crime, drugs and gangs, and despite educating their kids against this lifestyle, their kids end up doing the same exact thing.
It is similar to what I've said in my previous post, the kids in my school were smart, they learned from the experiences of others, and decided for themselves, that being a 500-lb kid who was constantly targeted, was NOT what they wanted, and then made healthier choices along the way to avoid that. Those who were targeted because of their weight, eventually decided that they were tired of being picked on, and they wanted to be normal, and they did something about it.
I agree with BZ, and I maintain, that these kids won't learn anything if they are just told "No." All it will do is lead to extreme rebellion, and eventually, the least desired outcome will be the result. The kids need to be educated at home as much as possible, and then be given the opportunity to decide for themselves, which kind of life they'd want to live. Should they decide to choose the wrong thing, then sure enough, there will be consequences, and that, only provides yet another opportunity for them to learn from it. The bright side is that they'll at least have first-hand experience, to go along with advice and second-hand experience from the observation of others.
That said, you can't always blame the parent's either.. You can only blame them if and only if, they were the over-indulgent type and couldn't say no, (which is a habit that starts when the child is very young and learned that they can get their own way by crying) and/or they did not try to educate their child from the get-go. Otherwise, if the parent has done everything they possibly could, then fault lies with the child and them alone.