How did this happen??
When I attended grade school, children simply exchanged little cards or notes for Valentine’s Day. Somehow, in the years since, Valentine’s Day has morphed into a feeding frenzy with loads and loads of candy and other sweets taking center stage. I was SHOCKED when my two boys came home from school on Wednesday with literally, a shoe box each FULL of candy given out by classmates for Valentine’s Day.
Not only that, each class had a party with juice, cookies, and other refined carbs to stuff the kids with before sending them home with enough candy to keep their sinuses clogged and noses running at least until the Easter candy fest starts all over again.
What are these people thinking? Don’t they know we have a childhood obesity crisis going on in the Western world? Don’t they realize that children as young as 10 are regularly being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, a degenerative disease once only found in adults primarily over the age of 50? Don’t they realize that children’s bodies are increasingly made out of “mush” (exact word used by my chiropractor to describe the bodies of children he treats) where injuries and broken bones occur for seemingly little to no reason at all?
These types of injuries rarely occurred years ago when kids played outside a lot more and played a lot harder, for that matter. A friend of mine whose 13 year old daughter plays competitive soccer told me that last year, every single girl on the team with the exception of one or two suffered a fracture of some kind during the season! I played a number of competitive sports growing up including speedball (a cross between football and soccer), and I never saw a broken bone. Not one.
Could people really be that oblivious to the serious and shocking degeneration of our youth that is occurring right before our eyes? Am I the only one who can see it? I don’t think so. I think most people see it but feel powerless to stop it. So, they ignore it.The commercialization of Valentine’s Day is so complete that folks take it for granted that giving a shoe box full of candy to a child “is just what you are supposed to do”. This is simply not normal, folks! Just because everyone does it doesn’t make it “normal”. Giving that much candy to a child, many of which already show signs of weight issues is just plain crazy. Until “the tipping point” is reached where enough parents rebel and refuse to participate in the sugar madness that has taken over our schools at not just Valentine’s Day, but ANY day that is even remotely a cause for celebration, then the degeneration will continue.
I am happy to report that when my kids came home with all this candy, they each requested one or two special pieces to keep and then promptly threw the rest in the trash. They did this on their own with no comment on the situation from me. I hope more than just my kids did exactly the same thing or something at least similar!
“You teach, you teach, you teach” .. the final words of Dr. Weston A. Price.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
You are right on! Love this and thanks for sharing!
I had to keep my 3 year old home from preschool 2 days this week because of the V day parties. Of course I still had to pay for the days…
That so sad but true
🙂 I talked about this yesterday after my son had his preschool party. I was happy that some people chose to do things other then candy, but there still was too much candy. When he wasn’t looking I took out all the dyed stuff and left him a few piece of chocolate that he wanted to share with me.
🙂 I talked about this yesterday after my son had his preschool party. I was happy that some people chose to do things other then candy, but there still was too much candy. When he wasn’t looking I took out all the dyed stuff and left him a few piece of chocolate that he wanted to share with me.
The problem is that it is rationalized that it is a “special” occasion, it’s a “treat”, or “it only comes once a year”. Of course that is also said about Halloween, Christmas, Easter, and every birthday in between… no one seems to realize all these “once a year” treats add up to a LOAD of crap!
Can you complain to the school?
Thank you for the post! I agree, there is waaaay too much candy being eaten (during day to day living) and I think Valentine’s Day is one of the worst “eat-all-the-candy-you-can” days.
My son is at school at a Valentine’s Day party, along with the celebration of our statehood in Arizona (they’ll have birthday cake there too, along with all the treats parents are sending in).
We’ve been able to take care of the Holidays and Halloween (we have a Candy Fairy that comes. The kids leave their candy out for her and she leaves them a small toy – it makes it fun!)
My son is going to come home crazy today and I’ll just have to moderate whatever he brings home.
I just read in The Mood Cure that sugar used to be called “crack” and it was known to be highly addictive. (sigh}
I’m going to bring some cheese cubes to my kids party this afternoon.
As moms it is all about balance. Glad I have taught my kids this.