no cupcakes?

Parent Cafe
1

<p>Ok I admit I have been known to go off the deep end</p>

<p>For my oldests 5th birthday party, I not only invited everyone in her preschool classes ( about 30 kids and most of them came) but I didn’t make a birthday cake- I made birthday blueberry muffins ( for some reason I thought that was * healthier*</p>

<p>I have a video of that party- and you should see the look on the faces of the kids when I brought out the Muffins!
:(</p>

<p>lawdy
<a href=“http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/education/2003283485_cupcakes01.html[/url]”>http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/education/2003283485_cupcakes01.html&lt;/a&gt;
Yes americans have an overeating problem- but birthday cupcakes are not the reason
I can see schools worrying about peanut allergies, but if they are really worried about obesity in school children- they should cut the use of artery clogging, high caloric commodity cheese & “meat” in school lunches, and have more whole grains- and vegetables.
<a href=“http://www.healthyschoollunches.org/news/news031006.html[/url]”>http://www.healthyschoollunches.org/news/news031006.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>I don’t even really like cake- but birthday cake is a tradition that I think is harmless- bringing treats to share- is a nice way for kids to connect to their whole class.</p>

2

<p>IMHO, this is just <em>one</em> more example of missing the forest (the general unhealthiness of most school lunches) for the trees (an occasional celebratory cupcake) and of a school district’s attempt to control that which is, frankly, NONE OF ITS CONCERN. </p>

<p>That said, our district has <em>never</em> allowed cupcakes for reasons of messiness. The floors in our elementary schools have that sort of “institutional carpeting” and the custodians have said that the crumbs/icing are difficult to remove. I’ll buy that. </p>

<p>These types of stories thoroughly disgust me because they are about the attitudes of a few being foisted upon the many. The fact is, if birthday treats are allowed, it is UP TO THE PERSON HAVING THE BIRTHDAY to decide what to bring. THEN, everyone else can decide whether or not to partake. JEEZE.</p>

<p>~berurah</p>

3

<p>Hearhearhearhearhear!!</p>

<p>I HATED when our district eliminated all peanut products, and then birthday cupcakes! Then they took away all the parties too…no Halloween, no Valentine’s Day, no special party food of any sort! BLAH!</p>

<p>Such an idiotic attempt to control everything!! And really, food is celebratory and unifying, and gathering around food is important for both kids and adults. </p>

<p>Eliminating parties, cupcakes, etc. is doing away with rites of passage of childhood. I can’t stand the interests of a few superceding the good of the whole. It is such a misbegotten concept.</p>

4

<p>beruah, I agree with you. </p>

<p>I think kids would be served better if daily lunches had healthier options. My kids had the following offered to them in elementary school b/c we do not have hot lunches served through the school-hot dogs, pizza, chicken nuggets and fries, BK, sub sandwiches. Veggies, salads, fruit, dairy, whole grains were never offered. Also, I think encouraging lifelong exercise, and not having competition that makes the nonathletically inclined hate exercising would help in this country. There are too many kids who are embarrassed when they always finish last in a race, are last picked to be on a team, etc. Instead, education about why it is important to be physically fit would help to change the health of the US population. Also, too much phys ed time is wasted (ie: attendance, discipline for wearing jewelry, chewing gum etc.). Kids wait on lines, standing around while one or two are physically doing an activity during gym class. I have always found it to be a waste of time, and frankly my phys ed classes were this way, and so were my kid’s gym classes. Little has changed. There is also little invested in the student that needs the greatest help with being physically fit. Most attention, IMO, goes to the athlete that will be in better physical shape than the nonathlete, whether there is a coach/teacher or not.</p>

<p>BTW, I see little wrong, healthwise, with offering cupcakes at BD parties in school. The focus is all wrong. Coach potatoes, too much video time, too much stress on kids with hw are the real issues!</p>

5

<p>when younger D was in 3rd grade- she had a teacher who loved parties
they even had a Halloween and Valentines party & during the winter holidays celebrated while learning about Chanukah/Diwali and other festivals around the world.
So when in 4th grade she had a teacher who didn’t allow any special celebrations at all not even acknowledging that a child had a birthday ( because one student was a Jehovah witness)- it seemed like something concrete was missing from teh classroom</p>

<p>I agree that PE /health classes need to be meaningful
mY oldest always had As- even though she wasn’t most talented because she had a good attitude and worked hard
But while her sister, hasn’t taken PE in high school because she has been able to get waivers for her participation on school sport teams, she has had friends who barely passed PE, because they did not acheive the level of physical fitness that the instructor decided that they should be able to meet.
( which was like ridiculous, both those girls were on school sport teams, and even went to state competitions- just because they couldn’t legpress 180 lbs they got a D? )</p>

6

<p>If kids had more recess time, there wouldn’t have to be a worry about cupcakes. :)</p>

7

<p>What’s funny is that in the “old days,” everyone had cupcakes in school, yet there were fewer overweight Americans. In fact, the garment industry has had to “resize” its sizes to accomodate larger people - a size 12 today is bigger than a size 12 in the 50’s.</p>

<p>I think the biggest causes of obesity are inactivity, larger portions, and a greater availability of junky food.</p>

<p>However, I object to the government food Nazis enacting laws restricting our right to make our own food decisions (my libertarian streak is coming out).</p>

8

<p>This was a huge brouhaha!!
<a href=“http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2004/06/04/in_obesity_fight_school_bans_birthday_cupcakes/[/url]”>http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2004/06/04/in_obesity_fight_school_bans_birthday_cupcakes/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

9

<p>that article made me want to go eat a carrot.</p>

<p>but seriously, school lunches made me really really unhealthy and overweight and lethargic and miserable when I ate them everyday. Now I bring a lunch from home and feel better times infinity…
:slight_smile:
I definately blame school lunches for making american kids overweight. That and huge serving sizes… mostly though, the big food corp.s who have contracts with schools and serve unhealthy foods. At my school caffeteria - ketchup is considered a vegetable. what?</p>

10

<p>School lunches are notoriously unhealthy. My kids have always taken their lunch, except on pizza day. But that is my personal choice. </p>

<p>OTOH, I don’t expect that school administrators should be allowed to tell me what my own children can or cannot eat. I am not even a libertarian (much), and his makes my libertarian streak come out too, Bethel! If there is an obesity epidemic, educate people, but don’t control the food of people who don’t need controlling!</p>

11

<p>

</p>

<p>Yes, that’s true. But in the old days, cupcakes were rare treats! Nowadays, sugar snacks/cereals/treats are the staple in many if not most households, and there are NO rare food treats. </p>

<p>Seriously, what are rare food treats for kids these days? Or even for adults? Lobster and escargot, maybe? Certainly not McDonalds or Round Table Pizza, the way it was when I was a kid.</p>

<p>I teach middle school and you should see the 8th graders in my gifted classes this year. One girl is well over 250 pounds and several others are not far behind. I’m not saying that a ban on birthday cupcakes in elementary school would have changed her weight, but it’s clear that birthday cupcakes are just not that special anymore, so why not celebrate a student’s day with something else that is? (not food related).</p>

12

<p>I think the “bigger issue” (pun, well maybe) is the inactivity, as well as daily unhealthy lunch, and probably unhealthy dinner. Many kids eat frozen mac and cheese for dinner, or fast food. It is relatively cheap, convenient and quick. Most mothers are not there with a healthy snack at 3:00. My grandmother fed us cut up cucumbers and carrots for our afterschool snacks. Dinner was homemade soup, a salad, and a small pce. of meat, and a side like rice. Cooking, laundry, and cleaning was all that she did with her day. In fact she had hot cereal waiting in the morning. I did not eat junk cereal, or grab a massive bagel (have you noticed how bagels on the east coast have doubled in size over the last 30+ years). We did not eat french fries, or have any secret sauce. I had time to relax, or play ball for an hour or 2 after school. We had recess in school. I often walked home from school. Many kids today do not have much playtime, and they cannot walk home from their school (safety issues, school is too far from their home). The issues are deeper than cupcakes!</p>

13

<p>When she was 3, my daughter’s preschool had the rule of no celebrations AT ALL to not offend the Jehovah’s Witnesses on our military base (I don’t think we actually had any JW’s in the class). This included birthdays as well as the major holidays. The following year kids were allowed to bring prepackaged, individually wrapped (no home-made) treats for birthdays.</p>

<p>The solution is athletics, team or individual. Now I truly believe that I live in the last neighborhood in the US where kids do find a pick-up game of whatever after school. We have a lot of SAHMs who are able to supervise the kids.</p>

14

<p>

</p>

<p>Well, perhaps the last of two. :wink: My 14-year-old son often plays basketball or touch football after school with his friends. The back of our driveway has the perfect half-court and the neighbors around the corner have a big backyard. It starts out with two or three kids and before you know it there are six of them. These are kids who also do organized school sports, but not in an overly intense way. I think they much prefer the pickup games!</p>

15

<p>our area has lots of interest in building skateboard parks- of which I heartily approve
My younger d ( of which I am generally speaking on these boards- since my oldest is now a college graduate :slight_smile: ), has always been very active-
The I had to take the swing set down when she was 5 because she was trying to jump off the top of it & some times she is even on two sport teams at once active.</p>

<p>I think how we were raised regarding food when we were young has a great deal with how we look at food now.
For instance- my mother, didn’t allow me sweets and we had wheat bread when everyone else was eating wonder bread.
By the time I was about 7 , she had, had two more children, and tossed out her idea that sweets were bad for kids and gave us whatever we wanted to eat. But my sister liked capn crunch cereal & my brother loved chocolate, I on the other hand, could make a sugar daddy sucker last fora month by just licking a little and putting it away.
The damage to the way we thought ( and tasted) about food had already been done.</p>

16

<p>I totally agree with Northstarmom. The obesity problem is about waaaay more than birthday cupcakes. A number of insidious elements have come together to make the current generation of children the fattest and least healthy (both physically and, in my opinion, mentally )in American history. </p>

<p>Thinking back on cafeteria food from my own childhood, I recall that it was always full of stuff like pizza, hamburgers, french fries, hot dogs, and sloppy joes. Not really much different from today. BUT, we also had recess at least once a day—helter-skelter, running all over the playground recess, kickball, dodgeball, swinging from the monkey bars recess. For thirty minutes in the morning, and sometimes (depending on the weather and the judgement of our teachers as to where our class stood in the advancement of the curriculum) even longer in the afternoon. And we had formal gym classes, too. Recess had nothing to do with gym. There was never a shortage of athletic equipment and playground apparatuses. Lots of balls of every sort, jump ropes, bats, hoops, nets, an expansive black top as well as large open fields. Some of my fondest memories were of long afternoon recesses. We’d run around until we were sweaty and almost dizzy with exhaution, then single-file it to the water fountain where we drank, still feeling our pulses pounding in our temples. And the physical release seemed to clear our heads, and energize us for the academics which came afterward. </p>

<p>I noticed a drastic change when my own kids went to primary school: They’d all but eliminated recess, and gym was only once a week. There was little in the way of playground equipment, and little outdoor space was allocated for play. They eliminated all-day athletic Field Day competitions (which we use to LOVE when we were in school), as well as any special occasion celebrations. “Party” became a bad word, especially if it was in any way connected with a religious holiday. The exchanging of Valentines was now forbidden, too. No cupcakes for birthdays… Nada. Just work, work, work—gotta reach those “Standards of Learning” and score high on the tests don’tchaknow…sigh… Meanwhile, while no one seems to be watching, childhood is flying out the window. Yes, this is a rant!</p>

<p>Nowadays, many kids attend school all day from ever earlier ages (Nap time? What’s that?), plugging away at curriculum milestones that get more and more stringent, under teachers who have become ridgid task-masters with little to no curriculum autonomy. They sit in desks all day. No recess. No breaks for milk and snack. No parties. No fun. Just “Standards of Learning”. And tests.</p>

<p>Then they come home (often to an empty house), locking the door behind themselves (preditors, you know), get a high fat, high carb snack, and sit down in front of the TV/computer/video game console until mom and dad get home from work. Homework, eat supper. Go to bed without having done anything more physical than appose their thumbs. Get up and do it allover the next day. But apparently, there’s no problem that a more healthy school lunch can’t fix. Riiiiiiight…</p>

17

<p>rice crispy treats that is what my D brings for her HS friends on Bdays,everyone got sick of brownies, and at least it healthy cereal, right? right?</p>

18

<p>“A number of insidious elements have come together to make the current generation of children the fattest and least healthy (both physically and, in my opinion, mentally )in American history.”</p>

<p>Poetsheart, I totally agree with you too. You had very valid points about recess/phys ed., and about sitting around in front of some screen (computer, tv, etc) after 3:00. </p>

<p>I also think that dinner and breakfast menus have changed-greater quantities, as well as quick and less healthy menus. It is easier for some families to come home with fast food 3 times/week than to cook. Also, children are often free to pull out a bag of cookies, chips (have you looked at how many varied flavors there are) afterschool rather than eating something more nutritious. Many parents are not around to guide their children afterschool, and a bag of chips becomes the answer. You don’t need to wash it, peel it, cut it up. You just open the bag!</p>

19

<p>My oldest D is a new teacher and her school does allow cupcakes, or other treats, for birthday celebrations. She did have an instance last year when she was doing her practicum training where a mom brought in cupcakes, storebought, of various sizes and flavors, which in a second grade class is a recipe for disaster! You have to wonder what some people are thinking.</p>

<p>The schools where we lived the longest when my kids were young all allowed celebrations, and obviously still do, as that is where my D is teaching. As for the lunch issue, none of the elementary schools here have school cafeterias. Kids either go home for lunch or they bring their own. The parent organizations/school council moms do special pizza or hot dog days every Friday as a treat. When my oldest was in elementary school, a program was started for the entire school called Quality Daily Fitness, and the schools still do it. Twenty minutes daily of a particular activity chosen from several where the entire school takes a break and gets moving! It’s still in practice today. Oh, and their schools did, and still do, have gym class three times a week, and also recess. </p>

<p>Sports are also big in our district. There are track and field and cross country teams, even at the elementary level with county wide competitions twice a year. By middle school, there are inter-school teams for volleyball, soccer, and basketball, in addition to the track and field teams. The middle school that one of my Ds attended also had a teacher who ran a running club which met three times a week after school. </p>

<p>I’m actually surprised to hear that so many schools in the U.S. no longer have recess. I wasn’t aware of that and wonder how and why those decisions were made.</p>

20

<p>I think an emphasis on testing is behind the reason for reducing recess.</p>

<p>My kids had recess- as well as PE .Both their schools also had weekly swimming lessons, an important skill in the watery Northwest</p>

<p>Younger Ds school also had an Athon- to raise money from pledges- they usually did thing like ride bikes or rollerblades, although kids could also pledge to read so many books.
I used to run a weekly book group when she was in elementary- and one day when the kids were just too squirrelly , we walked around the school yard- not really for “punishment” but because it was a gorgeous day and I thought it would help them focus.
Lots of complaining from one kid though-
<a href=“Recess backlash: Parents say it pays to play - CSMonitor.com”>Recess backlash: Parents say it pays to play - CSMonitor.com;