Posted on 05/07/2017 4:41:21 AM PDT by Kaslin
I learned a new term this week: lunch shaming. What is lunch shaming? Its when parents dont pay their childrens lunch bills at school so the schools make them eat food I lived a large portion of my life surviving off of.
We really are out of problems if this is an issue worthy concern for society.
The New York Times had a big story on how children were made to eat cheese sandwiches because their parents had paid off their school lunch debt.
Now, its been a while since I was in school, but I do remember school lunches costing a couple of bucks. And I remember I was allowed to buy a school lunch one day per week because that was all my parents could afford. Free lunch was not an option. While we might have qualified I honestly have no idea how much my father made but I know it wasnt a lot the government teat was not an option. My family had pride and my parents provided for me and my siblings, undoubtedly at their own expense.
The idea of parental sacrifice for the good of their children is now dead. The school will feed them is the new way of life. But it shouldnt be.
One of the students mentioned in the Times piece said, I was so embarrassed, about being denied the school food she wanted and given lesser cheese sandwich level food…for free.
According to the paper, the family qualified for free lunches but a paperwork mix-up caused confusion and led to the denial. No, bad and lazy parenting led to the denial.
I know were not supposed to say it, but if a parent wont provide basic food for their kids theyre bad parents. With all the social programs and food stamps available, how much help do people need?
My mother lost her right leg above the knee when I was 9, yet she made sure to make lunch every day. She made sure I ate breakfast every single day before I left for school. Im sure she would have rather slept in, couldve found more enjoyable use for the time and money to make me lunch, but she did it because it was her responsibility. And she did it because she loved me.
That last part is the most important. Being a parent means loving your children, and taking care of their basic needs is how that love is expressed most frequently and effectively.
My dad drove a forklift 5 days a week and a Zamboni on the weekends to provide for me and my 4 siblings, and my mother took care of feeding us. There was never any doubt about their love, even when me and my brother and sisters did our best to inspire their anger (and we did a thorough job).
Now too many kids are being taught its schools and government who care for them, who feed them, not parents. And far too many parents are content to cede that basic responsibility.
Schools are providing breakfast and lunch to students of bad parents, and more and more are adding dinner to the menu. I get that some people have it rough, but we do have social safety net programs. If people on those arent using their benefits to feed their kids, what are we paying them for?
If you wont provide your child with food you should lose your child. Maybe that would shock their system to the point theyd get out of bed to made some oatmeal, hard-boil an egg, or make a sandwich?
All of those options, by the way, cost literally pennies per day. But the real cost is doing something that shows your kids you care enough to do something, and thats a bridge too far for too many people these days.
Billy Shore, the head of a charity that advocates absolving parents of basic responsibility, wrote a response to what he called the shameful Times piece in which he writes about how schools need to feed their kids. But they arent their kids, they are their students; those kids have parents. Those parents have responsibilities they arent fulfilling. And in not fulfilling those responsibilities theyre conveying to their kids that government provides for them, not parents.
Thats a horrible and damaging message to give to a kid.
As much as someone caring for a kid is something they need to know, nothing will replace the role of a parent. And a parent simply shirking responsibility because someone else will do it damages kids far more than having to eat a cheese sandwich.
Its time to judge these people, to shame them, to shun them. The student I mentioned at the open of this piece shouldnt be mad at the school of giving her food she didnt choose, she should be angry with her mother for choosing not to provide her with food in the first place.
I was joking. You’re gonna get a lot of jokes. Don’t take it seriously.
Thank you for the reminder, FRiend.
Pardon?
Is there, perhaps, a word or two missing in this sentence or have the school administrators gone insane?
"I see your lunch account is up to date Billy, so you must eat a cheese sandwich."
"But I don't like cheese."
"Shut up! You'll eat it and like it!"
The times have really changed. Some parents are beyond shaming. In my town we pack a backpack full of snacks for kids on the weekends for those who need them. . Apples, granola bars,etc.... They need them or else they won’t eat a whole lot on the weekends. Sad but true. Makes my blood boil.
You are a good sport-—and I’m glad that you are here.
.
As best I can remember,there was no such thing as “lunch shaming” when I was in school & my parents were poor or very close to it.. I spent a few years of my time working in the cafeteria & that paid for my lunch. That worked out pretty well. I don’t remember if there were any who had to do without. If there were,it was very few.
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