Posted on 06/05/2004 3:49:44 AM PDT by kattracks
It's a tie. Score one for parents in Brookline where a proposal to ban spanking or other physical punishments as a means of disciplining children was soundly defeated.But score one for the parenting police who have set a new policy in a Duxbury school to ban cupcakes at classroom birthday parties.
We're all for teaching children right from wrong. Contemporary child-rearing experts mostly concur that a timeout is far more effective than a thwacking to achieve this. But leave it to the Brookline Board of Selectmen to assert it's a legitimate role of town government to set a policy on discipline in the home. This was too much for Brookline's town meeting members, proving the nanny state can be overbearing even in the most liberal of enclaves.
But for mothers, working or otherwise, who find themselves in the kitchen at midnight frosting cupcakes so their child isn't the only one not to bring in birthday treats, relief is on the way. In Duxbury's Chandler School, sweets at a child's party are now a no-no. There's an obesity epidemic, don't you know, and a decorated birthday chair will have to take the place of kids licking chocolate off their fingers.
In Massachusetts' fine tradition of ``more government is better government,'' we probably won't have to wait long for a tie-breaker in favor of the parenting police.
No Johnny, you can't have any cup cakes, now you and Janie play with your condoms!
(If a body has time to pass a ban on cupcakes, they don't have enough worthwhile things to do and should be disbanded.)
I was one of the few voices supporting the ban on yesterday's threads. It's a pain for teachers when the kids sit there and stuff their faces to have to deal with with storage, cleanup etc. Can't have a cupcake without a drink, now can we? What if someone brings in cupcakes with peanuts or other things that incite allergies....Lawsuit time!! It's not like these kids are going to starve or get no birthday celebration at home. With food allergies, diabetes, kids on meds, etc, a cupcake is hardly worth the effort.
How about something creative and individual instead? Yesterday I suggested a 15 minute extra play time with the birthday person choosing a game. How about a birthday collage poster with pictures? How about a birthday mobile?
A cupcake? C'mon. It trivializes the person. Something original and special would have more meaning and teach a better lesson.
Signed,
"Grinch" Grania <^..^>
Good grief!....Many a time (through my children's school years)...I brought in cupcakes, paper cups, some juice....
..Big deal!...
How much trouble is that?????
So don't bring the peanuts, OK.
But a small cupcake never hurt anyone....
..and the kids always looked forward to it.
And yes, we had 'working moms' taking time to send in their kid's cupcakes too.
I find this so unreal!
I'll bet you've had kids in preschool! You've watched them eat the frosting off the top of the cupcakes, and then crush up the rest of the cake and scatter it across the floor. You've discovered that red- or purple-colored drinks are indelible on any surface.
I suppose a compromise, for those who can't live without cupcakes, would be to eat them outside.
Oh boy....Happy Birthday...time for some soylent green cakes!
...storage/cleanup...????
Huh?....
...Moms either buy the cupcakes at their local supermarket.....(which supplies the box as well)...
..or send their homemade cupcakes over in the old tupperware.
Cleanup????....how hard is it to get the trash can and dispose of paper baking cups (for the cupcakes), paper cups, and maybe a napkin????
If we're talking kindergarten or first grade, the teacher might need to pass around a disposable Wet One....
Again....how much work can it be???
I can't be entirely sure about the article, but it seems that only "sweets" are banned. If the idea was motivated by storage and clean up, wouldn't all food be banned? Some of those 100% fruit juices are awful for making stains too. And I'm sure even "healthy" snacks, in the hands of motivated children, will make a mess. Actually, maybe more than sweets, because at least with cupcakes, the kids were eating them. The less popular snacks may be discarded more and thus more to clean up. What I don't understand is how we get more and more "educated" about food choices, yet obesity continues to rise. I suspect the problem isn't the occasional cupcake at a birthday party, but the fact that most of the cupcake eaters proceed to head home and watch TV or play video games for six hours!
If we did not have liberals protecting all of us we would all die.
I think you're right. I was just wandering off on a tangent, remembering some of my experiences with preschool and Sunday School classes!
Yeah, right!
I've supervised kiddie parties when my son was grown up, and I've gone through the "party" nonsense as it extends to the HS classroom. Just a little hint...don't let HS kids bake the brownies or whatever for themselves or their little brothers and sisters. <^..^>
The mess it creates is worse than you'd think with all of those little mouths to feed.
The solution is probably to just bring the kids into the cafeteria for a birthday treat and something they'd enjoy as an activity.
**But score one for the parenting police who have set a new policy in a Duxbury school to ban cupcakes at classroom birthday parties.**
I worked in a Head Start classroom recently and found this to be their policy. No sweet treats on birthdays! They made a birthday card book and read a special story about "The Birthday Cake".
On one hand I can see the health benefits of this, for many of these youngsters are overweight.
On the other hand -- how about letting a kid be a kid?
"If you don't eat yer meat,
you can't have any pudding.
How can you have any pudding
if you don't eat yer meat?"
The school did right for once.
The problem is that the cupcake parties were occuring on a weekly basis. The school isn't interferring with parenting at home, but they are trying to excercise some control over what a kid eats at school when the parents aren't there and the school has responsibility.
The school also needs to look at the school lunches. I bet they are loaded with carbs and low in nutrition.
15% of our kids are obese now up from 7% in the 1980's.
Amen! I live in a neighborhood filled with families with young children. Once every couple of weeks a few children will emerge from their homes to play outside.
Right now, It's a gorgeous day. Saturday 3:30 pm. No kids outside playing. They're all in their rooms playing videogames.
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