Please, Do Not Feed the Animals!

And by the animals, I mean my kids.

Image Source: ClipartHeaven.com

I'm probably going to come off as being one of those moms after this post, but I'll take my chances with that one.

I get so annoyed when people feed my kids something that they shouldn't be eating, or that I wouldn't normally feed them. Now don't get me wrong here, I understand that when they are visiting someone else's house, they are probably going to be eating food that I don't regularly stock. Grandma S. is sure to serve Owen five pieces of sausage, two glasses of orange juice for breakfast, and no milk. Grandma B. will always have fruit snacks and chocolate treats on hand. And it's a good possibility that Owen will have dessert instead of dinner while at his "girlfriend's" house. Which is fine. I understand that while they are out of the house, I have no control over what they eat. However, when I am in the same room, or when I have left specific instructions, then that's a different story. 


We were recently at a family member's house for lunch. Before lunch was served, chips, crackers, and cheese were set out, as is the norm at this house. We allowed the boys to have some crackers and a few chips to hold them over until lunch was served, but not too many, otherwise they would not eat their lunch. So after they had what we deemed to be an acceptable amount of snacks, we told the boys no more until lunchtime. But then along comes a family member who offers the boys more, and gives them at least a handful more of the snacks and keeps telling them that yes, they can have some more chips.

This is where most of you are probably going to think, "So? What's the big deal?"  And you may be right, I just think that it teaches the boys that they don't have to listen to what we say and encourages them to be sneaky. No? Well, here are a few more cases that you are more likely to agree with:

• When Owen was in daycare, I dropped him off one morning while his daycare provider was baking chocolate chip cookies for a school bake sale. (He was somewhere between 1 1/2-2 years of age at the time). Of course he eye-balled the cookies with his mouth watering, but I told him, right in front of the woman, that he was NOT to have a chocolate chip cookie for breakfast. That cookies are not a breakfast food etc. I made it quite clear that I did not want him to eat a cookie for breakfast, which I think that, as his mother, who is paying this woman to take care of my son, I am entitled to do. Well, when I picked him up that afternoon, guess what his daycare provider told me? (While laughing, I might add). That he had eaten chocolate chip cookies for breakfast. Seriously?! First of all, who feeds a child cookies for breakfast, and secondly, how rude of her not to respect me as his mother and my decision. (I had other issues with this registered daycare provider other than this, like leaving the children with her 14 year old daughter while she ran errands, but that's another story).

 

• Owen is lactose intolerant, information that I had provided his daycare with, and consistently reminded the woman (the same one as above) that he could not eat anything with milk or cheese in it. Did she listen? No. She continuously fed him ice cream, macaroni and cheese, grilled cheese, cream of what-have-you soups, and other dairy foods. Her reasoning behind it? "But he likes it!" and "Well, there's such a small amount of dairy in it that I assumed it would be okay for him." Again, seriously?! What if this was a severe food allergy that he had? 

 

• Similarly, when Owen started play group at the college, I filled out the forms and indicated that he was lactose intolerant and could not have any dairy foods. So imagine my horror surprise when he told me that he had been given chocolate milk at snack time! (He said that he didn't like it and did not finish it, so fortunately, that uncomfortable afternoon was avoided). I called the professor in charge of the play group to point out what had happened, and he was very apologetic about it, as were the college girls who supervise the children. As it turns out, what the kids were actually given were Yoo-Hoo drinks, which was provided by one of the parents, as the snacks are every week. Now, I don't know a whole lot about this beverage as I never drank it myself, but I'm pretty sure that it is not the best choice for a bunch of 2-4 year olds at 11 AM. I was not impressed. 

 Maybe I was overreacting over these incidences, but I don't really think that I was. What do you think?