About this Blog
Momfidence! cheers on commonsense parenting and sighs at the rest. How to worry less, wing it more. A.k.a. parenting by the seat of my mid-rise mom jeans.
About Paula SpencerI'm the author of Momfidence! An Oreo Never Killed Anybody and Other Secrets of Happier Parenting, and a mom of four in Chapel Hill, North Carolina (where you can't even buy Oreos at the two wholesome groceries nearest to my home). 
A rare foto in which all six Spencers face the camera! by Charles Harris
Some Kindred Blogs
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This MONTH's Lighten-Up-and-Eat-A-Cookie AwardNovember 10, 2008
I was traveling, else I would have been all over this story about sugaritis in the public schools. I've written in my book & column about this theme before --the disappearance of bake sales, birthday celebration treats ,and cookies in hot lunches. But I had little idea the comic depths of the matter: * Snack time is now called "nutrition break." * Kindergartners celebrating with a "Healthy Halloween" vegetable platter (I have no problem with the veggies, but why drag Halloween into it? Last time I checked candy corn and maybe eye-of-newt were seasonal ingredients, not broccoli.) * No treats may be brought from home because there's no way to check that the ingredients are "free of bovine growth hormones, irradiation, hydrogenated oils and known genetic modification. (Does this mean I can't bring my homemade eye-of-newt pumpkin muffins any more?) * Kindergartners are also being taught to have "courage" in the fight of "good foods versus bad foods." I thought there were no bad foods -- only bad eating habits. I thought courage was what's needed for good versus bad flights like the Revolutionary War. (Hope they still have time to teach that...) The nanny-state nutrition zealots can lecture students all they want but what happens when they go home? That's where the habits of a lifetime are born. (And how come when we were snarfing rice krispie treats for birthday treats and selling candy bars for a Spanish Club fundraiser, there were only one or two fat kids per grade?) More power to the clever young capitalists selling chocolate chip cookies on the way to and from school (and maybe dealing out of their lockers) because they're banned within school grounds. We're talking cookies! |
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