Why You Gotta Mess/Under the Radar

So our kids eat food and grow quite rapidly. In a generally descent sort of way.

They eat much of what is on their plate and let us know when they want more.

For breakfast, specifically, they will even direct us to what they want... blueberry waffles, a banana, some milk; whatever, they have free will and are making choices that will satisfy their immediate hunger.

And my kids eat trees, sauteed green beans with a slight garlic butter sauce, and carrots - to see better. And it works. They eat the vegetables like they're going out of style. Unregulated, free for all, somewhat random, what's on their plate goes in the mouth and so on...

Photo courtesy via CC

So, Public School - why you gotta mess?

As you direct my kid to bring home the four week program associated with the healthy food chart of fruit and vegetables, complete with stickers - it makes eating fruits and veggies seem like a laborious, enforced manifesto of top down economics... (really dad, the chart again?)

Suddenly my "under the radar" approach, (as in under the kid acknowledgement radar) with subtle feedings of veggies:

•  (fun - here eat some mini-trees [broccoli]);
• (fancy - specially prepared fresh green beans);
• (goofy - eat your carrots, they will help your eyes!)

 - has become a stigmatized homework issue, brought to the forefront of my kids' daily eating habits.

I understand the intent of the program. I watched Jamie Oliver's show on tv and thought it was fairly useful, in fact my wife has a couple of his cookbooks - he wants healthy food in schools and schools should listen - but as an upstanding middle class white family I think that we can guide our kids to eat the good stuff - at least the majority of the time.

It feels like it is coming from some group who is sub to some other group (and so on...) that says that tomato paste on pizza is a vegetable...

eat'em up! eat'em up! raw, raw, raw!