Non food Celebrations at school (weight, support, parents, girls)
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******Mods---please do not move this to education forum as i would like to get reactions from parents, not specifically educators. many thanks*****
My daughters came home from school with a New Wellness Guidelines. They(local school board) have decided no more birthday cupcakes or cakes celebrations at school!!!! Only non-food celebration will be allowed.
I don't like this at all. I'm not talking about allergy problems. I'm all for that. I'm not talking about candy as rewards--I'm against that. I'm the Mom who strictly regulates all sugar consumption, especially at holidays. I'm the Mom who has never included cookies or chips in a school lunch. BUT I'm the Mom who looks forward to baking and decorating mini cupcakes for the whole class to help my daughters celebrate a birthday. Parents were told to coordinate with teachers so no 2 kids brought on the same day or even 2 days in a row.
We always have family celebrations and my girls are so proud of the cupcakes and sharing.
This policy has nothing to do with being inclusive. (kids whose Moms might not be able to bring treats to school feeling "less than".)It is all about Wellness. bah humbug!!!!
Name me one celebration, holiday or societal event which does not include food?
Does your child's school have such a policy? How would you feel if they did?
Yes. My children have that policy and I love it. The teachers love it too. I have a few teacher friends and they all hate cupcakes as it takes away from the day and is a huge mess. All of that food coloring is really bad for their behavior and cupcakes are just bad for their health in general. This is not a once a year time for consumption. There are over twenty five children in their class so that would be twenty five cupcakes over the school year.
In my opinion, that's what birthday parties are for.
It really bothers me that we have a huge childhood obesity epidemic going on right now and so many parents are against trying to combat it. While your child may not have a problem what about the other overweight children in their class? Twenty five cupcakes over the year could have a major influence in their health if they are not being fed well at home. I know what you're probably thinking and that's that it's not your problem that other parents choose to feed their children junk.
Think about this though. Childhood obesity typically stems from parents not being educated about nutrition. They are not purposely making their children unhealthy, they just don't really know that what they are doing is hurting their child. So when programs like these come around it is a great opportunity for health educators to get the word out to those parents to show them that it is situations like these (birthday parties, holidays, etc.) that contribute to their overall health. And, shouldn't we as a society care about other children who basically do not have a say in what they are fed? Collectively, we can start to make a difference but there has to be a starting point.
Personally,I think it's getting borderline ridiculous to completely ban food from a celebration. I've never heard of a celebration that does not allow good.
I think most of it comes from the many complaints about food at school that over controlling parents don't want their kid to have, not to mention the permission slips for allegies,etc.
Our district recently moved to this type of policy as well. There are four sanctified holidays where you can have treats without parent permission, Halloween, Christmas, Valentines, and the last day of school I believe. You can have treats at other times of the year as long as you have permission from every parent in the class. Furthermore, if I was to bring something in for my daughter's classmates, it has to be store bought and prepared for allergy reasons.
However, you can bring in non-sweet snacks as a treat, fruit, vegetables, but the district would prefer a non-food based treat like stickers, bookmarks, etc...
What do I think? Well, I think there are times when the treats get out of hand, some parents bring in huge Costco sized treats. Then the teacher becomes the server and that takes time from what s/he needs to do in the classroom. Plus, it begins to pit students against each other to see who brings the best or biggest treats. It won't go away with non-food based treats, but it will make parents be more creative.
I also think these "wellness policies" go a little far to the point of ridiculousness.
OP, what do they suggest you do instead to celebrate birthdays?
At our school, the policy is that moms arrange for the whole class to get an ice cream treat in the cafeteria after lunch. It's still a treat, though. Birthdays are not supposed to be about showing off your cupcake skillz. Some moms have them; some don't.
At our school, with the old policy, when you tabulate all the birthdays (including the summer b'days, which are celebrated in April) kids were getting cupcakes or Krispy Kreme donuts twice a month!
In our elementary school, we have to bring secular decorations to holiday parties anyway, so Halloween means NO ghosts or even black cats. Basically it's just fall leaves. Christmas is the same: no Santa or even reindeer, but holly etc. **bleh**
HOWEVER, I have noticed that most every activity includes some kind of treat or reward. Intrinsic value is almost never celebrated.
This is what I remember from my elementary school in the 1970s. On your birthday, the teacher would draw a birthday cake in the top corner of the chalkboard in colored chalk with your name written on it. I LOVED that so much, but that was it. Moms never came to the school then unless you were sick.
OP, what do they suggest you do instead to celebrate birthdays?
At our school, the policy is that moms arrange for the whole class to get an ice cream treat in the cafeteria after lunch. It's still a treat, though. Birthdays are not supposed to be about showing off your cupcake skillz. Some moms have them; some don't.
At our school, with the old policy, when you tabulate all the birthdays (including the summer b'days, which are celebrated in April) kids were getting cupcakes or Krispy Kreme donuts twice a month!
In our elementary school, we have to bring secular decorations to holiday parties anyway, so Halloween means NO ghosts or even black cats. Basically it's just fall leaves. Christmas is the same: no Santa or even reindeer, but holly etc. **bleh**
HOWEVER, I have noticed that most every activity includes some kind of treat or reward. Intrinsic value is almost never celebrated.
This is what I remember from my elementary school in the 1970s. On your birthday, the teacher would draw a birthday cake in the top corner of the chalkboard in colored chalk with your name written on it. I LOVED that so much, but that was it. Moms never came to the school then unless you were sick.
I grew up in the 1980s and it was the same. Nobody ever brought cupcakes. There is a correlation between the amount of treats that were served twenty years ago and the health of children today.
We just moved but at our child's old school the holiday treats really overwhelmed me and the teachers and half the time they had so much left over that it would just go to waste. I often contemplated pulling my kids out of school because I was so sick of them coming home completely wired and then crashing with a tummy ache because they weren't used to having so much junk. I never did because I did not want them to be left out of the celebration. But I agree, there was way too much focus on the food and I doubt any kids had any idea what they were celebrating anyway.
There are many other ways to celebrate and make a child feel special. I know my daughter loves goodie bags that include glitter pencils and stickers. She also loves to feel special on her birthday and just having the class acknowledge her by singing happy birthday does the trick.
Food doesn't have to be part of something to make it a celebration. That's why we have so many obese people in this country.
I agree completely. It's also the amount and type of food that is being offered at each celebration. I remember Christmas time at my school being celebrated with a couple of candy canes and every once in a while someone would bring in homemade sugar cookies and the whole class and everyone would get one cookie. Half the time the kids wouldn't even finish their cookie. Fast forward to my kid's classes last year and there was enough food for each child to have at least 4 cupcakes, 3 cookies, and a ton of candy. These cookies are not homemade and are packed with chemicals and other things I cannot even pronounce. Not to mention, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Birthdays, 100th day of school, Valentines Day, St. Patrick's Day, and the last day of school.
I am so thankful to live in an extremely progressive city that acknowledges this and all parents are very supportive of these changes.
Last edited by theyreinphx; 09-02-2012 at 08:33 PM..
I also noticed the store bought stipulation about any food brought to school. I understand intellectually but emotionally it makes me sad. Times have gotten so complicated and rigid it seems. And of course I understand about obesity problem. It is everywhere. Guess I didn't think about it being such a big problem with so many kids' parents bringing treats but if every kid brought in treats I could see it getting out of hand.
To be clear, I am not the Queen of Cupcake Decorating. The Birthday Girl always did most of the decorating and that is what made her so proud to hand them out. But teachers are not waitresses and their time is valuable. Guess I need an attitude adjustment.
However I will admit I never did like the Thanksgiving Feast I usually volunteered for. Way too much food and do the kids really learn anything about the holiday by eating mac and cheese brought by some parent? and year after year it is the same Moms who bring in homemade food.
Do you think this is probably a change which is happening all over the country?
I haven't seen the list of alternatives yet but I'm sure it is things like stickers and book marks.
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Christmas is the same: no Santa or even reindeer, but holly etc. **bleh**
