Remember when a bake sale at school meant there would be cupcakes, cookies, brownies, and a bevy of other home baked goodness? Since my children started school these wonderful bake sales that kids look forward to, have now become "healthy snack sales." Now, before some of you jump all over me, I am all for health eating, especially for children, but once in a while is not going to be the end of the world for them. But I digress,back to bake sales. This has been kind of a pet peeve of mine since my children started school. There's a group of parents that for some reason can not leave well enough alone and start these "groups" to put an end to things like bake sales. They have turned them into "HEALTHY SNACK SALES" (and the ones in charge send home a list of what constitutes "healthy" in case we were too stupid to know). They always have the same reasoning....."it is SOOOO unhealthy." "Sugar is soooo horrible for these children", "do you know how hard it is for them to concentrate when they have had sugar in the last ^ months (inserts sarcasm here)." You get my point. That is all fine and well but what happened to letting kids be kids and have something yummy once in a while?
If I hear one more mother tell me about sugar highs and how bad some of the kids act after having sugary things I think I might scream!!!! The only kids that are going to be affected with the no bake sale/healthy food only crap will be kids like mine that already eat very healthy everyday. My kids eat their veggies and fruits and I make sure that is what is in their lunch boxes everyday. The kids that have "problems" with sugar are the kids that are bringing a soda to school for lunch in kindergarten or maybe that 7 year old that I saw with a cappuccino in her hand last week as she went into school. I don't think that them having a cupcake will really change that. I will let you all in on a little secret, (not that much of a secret if you know us) my kids and my husband eat cake and cookies for breakfast. That's right! SWEETS!!!!! My husband always has and for a while I tried to fight it with the kids but I finally gave in. In all honesty my kids may start with a brownie but they usually have fruit with it. How is it any different then giving them pancakes and syrup? It's not. I love to see other mom's reactions when I tell them this. They usually say stupid things like, "well they aren't hyperactive", "they aren't fat", "they're really smart", or "really, you would never know!" Crazy isn't it!!!! My kids are some of the healthiest kids out there and I am told this every time they go to the pediatrician (and yes he knows what they eat for breakfast, he just says we doing something right). These are also the parents that tell me what picky eaters their kids are and can't believe that mine will try anything and have been taught to eat what is on their plate (when at other people's homes). Stop trying to feed them crap that 1) is nasty and 2) no one has ever heard of. (Oh and usually organic.)
The bottom line is, let you kids have a brownie from the school bake sale. Bake sales are supposed to be something kids look forward to. No one wants to go to a bake sale and get celery!
