teachers feeding kids too much junk

[binfoco]

Do any other moms have any advice as to what to do for holidays and birthday celebrations etc? My son is in pre k and they are constantly giving him gmo cupcakes, cookies, red 40 fruit snacks , and rainbow cereals . Ive already decided to keep him home on the holidays so they dont load him up with all this junk. Valentine's day was the worst. They sent pics of their party and every kid had 3 giant red cookies, 2 cupcakes, a little debbie snack, 2 packs of welchs artificial fruit snacks, cheetos, and , the only thing i found acceptable , which was a bag of goldfish crackers. Oh ya, thats cause that was my contribution for their LAST celebration and was left over.

I dont have the money for a private school and i would prefer not to homeschool because i want him to have a real school experience if possible. Are charter schools and stem schools like this too??

My other problem is they must use a horrible soap to wash their hands because his hands are always dry cracked and bleeding by the end of the week and his class is only 2.5 hours 4 days a week! What are they doing to my kid! Any advice appreciated.

 

[levi]

@binfoco You should be able to choose what the school gives your child to eat. You might have to send in a replacement snack, but keeping your child home every time there might be an unfavorable snack might not be academically wise.

In terms of the soap, use good lotions at home to counteract the dryness from the soap. Not much you can do about what products they use :/

I wouldn’t change schools over this. You’re sending him for education, and if education is the goal, pick a school based on that.

 

[annajane]

@levi When I was a teacher I always had kid that listed red dye 40 as an allergen and did it understand it lol but respected it…NOW I get it

 

[binfoco]

@levi Thank you! I tried to pack his food, but they automatically give all the kids the same thing, and he wants what his friends are having. Theres no way i could send him and say dont give my kid cupcakes because he'd be watching all the other kids eat cupcakes.

I wish they were a good school academically, but the only thing they are in top percentage for is kids that qualify for free lunch. Its bottom 20 percent in the state for reading and math.

 

[carolny]

@binfoco Former public school teacher here. I’m not understanding why any food is being served in class outside of daily snack (for preK) or lunch provided by the school system if the kids don’t bring home lunch. There are so many ways to celebrate special occasions other than food. With how many allergies and dietary restrictions there are, it simply isn’t worth it in a school environment. At home, at birthday parties, at family events— go for it and do whatever you want and parents can choose what they do and don’t want their kids to partake in. But I don’t think school is the place for it. Maybe once or twice a year, like a special pizza party lunch to celebrate the end of the year or a baking project that the kids worked on together. And with that, every parent would have to know in advance what was being served, where it was coming from, and what special accommodations would be made to include students with allergies, etc.

If it truly seems like an ongoing issue, I’d ask the teachers if they would consider switching to non-food ways of celebrating. Instead of sending in food, can parents send in stickers, little erasers, pencils, etc? (Think Dollar Tree, Target dollar spot, etc). Or better yet, instead of buying and sending in anything, can there just be in-class ways of celebrating without outside donations? To me, that always seemed the most fair so that the inevitable kid whose parent didn’t send anything didn’t feel like shit.

I always gave each bday kid a paper crown that they got to decorate and wear on their birthday, and gave them a bday sticker to wear on their shirts. At morning meeting, the class would sing to them, and they’d get the opportunity to tell the class any special bday traditions their family has. Parents were invited to come into class to read a favorite book from home, or the bday kid got to choose the book I read aloud that day from the class library. Similarly for holidays— I’d lead the celebration by selecting special books to read aloud, a special art project, games, etc. No food necessary. All of that said, these are classroom culture things, and they’re cultivated from the start of the year as rituals and routines are built. You may not get a lot of buy in from teachers (or other parents and kids) on a mid-year change for birthday celebrations because it may not feel fair. However, if you get the sense that this is common practice in your school, it may be worth bringing up to your child’s eventual K teacher or even the principal before the start of the next school year. You may just have to grit your teeth and bear bdays for the rest of the year. Holiday wise, the biggest (Halloween, winter holidays, and Valentines) are behind you so hopefully that won’t continue to be an issue.

And yes, the industrial pink soap is shit and awful on anyone with sensitive skin. Try to load him up with good moisturizer when he gets home. If it gets really bad you can do moisturizer + an occlusive (aquaphor, Vaseline, or a non-petroleum alternative like Waxelene) + cotton gloves at night. Good luck with everything!

 

[binfoco]

@carolny Thank you so much!

 

[southronlady]

@binfoco I’m surprised at everyone’s responses here so far. I’d be frantically looking for a new school if this were my child. Holy crap that’s a lot of junk food. Their poor teeth! And health! It’s not fair when adults load kids up with sugar. They have no choice in the matter. Of course they’ll eat it all up, they’re kids and junk’s delicious, but they don’t know the consequences of it yet. Poor babes.

 

[binfoco]

@southronlady Yes. Im going to be looking at different charter and stem schools to see if any of them are any different with what they feed the kids but i have a feeling its the same across the board here and i hope im wrong.

 

[sonnet]

@binfoco As a public school teacher it’s really the parents, not the teacher. Sometimes we have two birthdays in one week and I really cringe because those kids are getting so much sugar. But some teachers love birthday celebrations, I wish they were limited more but idk. You have to find the balance. See if your child will try to eat what you packed but then we have a parent who told me her child started getting an eating disorder, hiding and stuffing food, because of all the restrictions she had placed on him.

 

[peggyleggy]

@binfoco Charter and private school would be very similar.

I suggest you volunteer as a room mom or get on the PTO. You can take more leadership during parties, too. You can also donate soap and lotion to his classroom.

It isn't abnormal for children to not be able to celebrate holidays for religious reasons. Or parents who provide allergy-friendly food.

 

[binfoco]

@peggyleggy Thank you.

 

[cday1210]

@binfoco How often are they doing these parties? It’s not that big of a deal for a kid to have a cupcake and a cookie once a month at school. The volume of sweets is a bit concerning but I wouldn’t make my child a pariah at school by making a huge stink about this. Brush their teeth really good when they get home, offer good food choices the rest of the time and let them enjoy their class events. At absolute most I’d ask the teacher to chill on the amount of sweets given in a single event or offer to purchase higher quality treats with less food dye and artificial ingredients

 

[binfoco]

@cday1210 Its at least once a week. There are 20 students in his class and if each gets a party, plus holidays its more like 2 times a week. Hes had 3 parties since February 10th which was actually just a week ago!

 

[cday1210]

@binfoco It’s not possible for 20 kids to generate enough birthdays for several parties a week all year. I understand that there might be some clusters (like 2 February birthdays and Valentine’s Day all close together) but they can’t have 3 parties a week every week, it doesn’t work out mathematically. I think you’re working yourself up over a fluke right now

 

[binfoco]

@cday1210 You're probably right. Im just upset at the timing of it all right now.

 

[cday1210]

@binfoco See how the next few months play out and then reevaluate

 

[sonnet]

@binfoco Valentines is usually the last holiday party. So it should just be birthdays from here on out.