..to take the piece of paper given to ds2 to write his food diary and write on it myself?

[TantrumsAndBalloons]

Something along the lines of "stick it up your arse"

I'm furious. Ds2 is 10. He has to write everything he eats for the next 2 days, the teacher will then give a prize to the person with the "best" diet.

I hate this. I hate the lunchbox police. I hate that they are teaching DCs that there are good and bad foods when there's no such bloody thing IMO

Food is food. I don't ban sugar or whatever, I don't give low fat yoghurt or sugar free squash to a 10 year old. Or supposedly healthy cereal bars.
He eats a balanced diet which includes "bad" foods.

But do you know what has really really pissed me off?

We are going out for dinner to celebrate my DN birthday. We are going to tgi Fridays cos the DCs love it. My ds2 is now really worried that he is going to get in trouble.
He is saying to me that he won't have the Oreo milkshake that he loves and only has once a year and he won't have a dessert and he will have a healthy main course.

I am furious. We don't go out to eat very often. He eats a balanced diet, he is very active and this teacher is making him worried about going out for dinner? What the actual fuck?

I told him not to write it. And I said that I will write a note to the teacher explaining that we do not have good and bad foods in this house and making a 10 year old feel guilty about going out for dinner or fretting about what they are going to eat is unacceptable

The thing is, at 10, they eat what is provided, don't they?
I mean they don't do the shopping or meal planning or cooking. So they are now made the feel guilty about something they have no fucking control over anyway.
What is this supposed to achieve exactly?

Lucy: do you really think it's a good idea to teach children that the should lie about their food consumption, and hide the 'bad' food they eat? That seems to me to be a very dangerous message.

If it is the teacher's aim to get children and their families thinking about and talking about their diet then that has been successful.

Other than that it's a pretty pointless exercise because those with unhealthy diets will either not care and write it all on the list, or lie.

However, OP, I do see this as a fantastic opportunity for a wind up. Slow roasted pine nuts on a bed of hand picked lettuce leaves, etc. C'mon use your imagination and send the diary back with something to make the teacher laugh.

She/he is probably bored to death with the whole 'healthy eating' topic too.

I'd be happy to help with that

The critiquing the list thing.... I missed the last couple of posts

As a teacher, I hate, hate, hate activities like this. I teach secondary, so it doesn't come up as often, but I have spoken out against similar "competitions" in the past. I know a heck of a lot about 16th Century Literature, but far less about food groups than most of the people on this thread, so who am I to be telling my Year 7 form what to eat at the weekend?

I think it's far worse at primary, particularly as the children have no control over meal planning or shopping, it's so unfair to judge them on this.

Is there any mileage in "embellishing" your DS's food diary but in a slightly different way, in order to help him laugh this off and not get anxious? I'm thinking:

Saturday breakfast: 1 can of red bull, deep fried "Elvis" sandwich(white bread, chocolate, peanut butter, banana).

Disclaimer: I am only joking. He sounds like a nice lad who doesn't want to get into trouble, so I realise this might make him more anxious. In reality I would have a polite word with the teacher and explain your reservations, as you suggest upthread. I hope he has and enjoys his milkshake

YANBU

I do not understand how schools have ended up being given the power to judge the food children eat. Their expertise is teaching. They are not specialists in dietetics and risk repeating a lot of poorly informed and generalised clap trap. Which is exactly what this teacher has done.

Due to a rare genetic disease, my DD (8) requires over 3000 kCal a day just to maintain her weight (including supplemental gastrostomy tube feedings) and eats an inordinately large amount of sugar to help to control unstable hypoglycaemia.

She is already very self conscious about her differences from her peers.

I wouldn't need her being further scrutinised with an assignment like this.

While I think "furious" is a little OTT, I think yanbu about feeling that this assignment is misguided and out of place.

Op totally agree with you, my 5 yr old has started spouting this stuff.

I would play it down, then it can be quickly forgotten about. Children cannot really hide from some of the food hysteria that is around these days, you just have to teach them to ignore the crazy stuff.

On the diary front I can see a couple of options, limited info, as in just main meal, pudding type of detail or more info, list each separate ingredient eg, onions, potatoes, carrots, swede, beef, stock when describing stew. The latter could be done in chart or graph form.

The message will be the same at school whether he does the homework or not. If they are told not to eat too many cakes for example he knows what he has eaten.

^the more obtuse the chart the less easy it will to single him out. Think massive key and funny child drawn symbols!

From this (and other threads) I think that most parents (on here) would be happy for the teacher to send them the lesson plans for the entire week to be scrutinised and commented on.

If you are (as a parent) not happy to do this, then maybe you should let the teacher get on with their job.

Boney Hang on a minute parents do have a right to comment on what goes on in schools. Parents will care about how their children are taught. Granted there more and less effective ways to go about this.

However teachers are not beyond reproach!

BTW I would love to see a teacher's lesson plans and would be quite happy to comment on them if I thought it would be productive.

boney this thread is not about how teachers are the worst people on earth.
I think teachers are amazing and I love that there are people who dedicate themselves to providing a wonderful education for children.
I have no issue with this teacher, I had an issue with the idea of a prize for the best diet and a list of bad foods.

Ds2 is going to do the homework. He is going to write it honestly but he is going to put a note on it saying that it isn't a normal weekend because we went out for dinner.

That's what he decided he wanted to do. He is also going to have his Oreo milkshake and a dessert and quite possibly a burger at tgi Fridays. He is looking forward to it.

So, he has resolved it by his self.

I shall not get involved any further. I still think it is ridiculous but that was because my DS was worried he was eating "bad" food.

Oh don't worry mine did one and we had gone away. Cue lots of cake out, crisps to share,box chocolates, takeaway...Wasn't singled out. He knew the special occasion. We were quite active that weekend regarding sporting activities.

Gosh, all the frothing over this is a slight overreaction. I agree that the homework is a bit crap but you do seem very sensitive about it.

I think it's a good idea to do the homework as you have desribed above, but if you are really this upset about it then you should really go and see the teacher and speak to them. You don't need to go in all guns blazing, but just explain that you don't agree with the good and bad lists and the prize element has made your ds anxious because he is having a treat this weekend.

i am glad your ds resolved it.
topic will be forgotten soon

maybe you should let the teacher get on with their job.

Because all teachers are automatically infallible, are they?

OP INBU. This is a ridiculous and potentially damaging assignment. TBH, I'd be strongly tempted to help ds make the entire food diary up.

YANBU. Thankfully my DDs are at secondary school now and this, type of thing isnt covered. When DD2 was in primary we got a letter home telling us that they could only have a healthy break and lunch, along with a listf of accepted foods. Banned foods included were white bread or rolls, butter, youghurt unless low fat, cheese, squash, allowed were cereal bars, low fat cheese etc.

We were expected to sign an agreement promising that we would only send lunches from the healthy list in the lunchboxes. I did start to write a letter pointing out the flaws in their healthy food list and the fact that for school dinners chips was on the menu twice a week and cake for pudding was served every day.
In the end I couldn't be bothered and tore it up and sent it back in an envelope. A couple of days later DD said that the plan had been abandoned, so I presume I wasn't the only one who thought it was ridiculous.

yoni with respect, that is your opinion. I don't think it was an over reaction, my DS was worried about it.

And it was not the prize element he was worried about, at all.
He was worried that the teacher would read his food diary and tell him that he was bad for eating bad food.
The prize was a problem to me because it is not a teachers job to judge who has the best diet.
And for the most part 10 year olds do not have much control over what food is served to them, do they?

If I seem a little sensitive then fair enough.

I don't want food to be labelled good and bad. But that is what has happened and my DS has made a decision. So it's done.

Disgusting that your ds has been made to worry about a treat! Honestly, I despair at this aspect of our curriculum, I really do. It is dangerous because mostly the information they give out is wrong.

I would have no qualms whatsoever with simply writing "I have told ds that he does not need to complete this homework, please come back to me if you have any issue with that".

"Ds2 is going to do the homework. He is going to write it honestly but he is going to put a note on it saying that it isn't a normal weekend because we went out for dinner. "

Why does he feel the need to justify what he eats to his teacher? It's absolutely none of her business.

it is utter bullshit that white bread is bad, this annoys me immensely. Children do not need shed loads of fibre in their diet, plus white bread flour is fortified with vitamins and minerals.

Full fat milk is not inherently bad.

Nothing on the bad list is bad unless eaten in excessive and exclusively. Whereas quite a few things on the good list are bad if eaten in excess and exclusively - cereal bars (who the hell, who the hell thinks cereal bars are healthy??) and fruit are rammed full of sugar.

I would say that this homework is an excellent exercise in understanding why we as a nation eat so badly and struggle to lose weight, when peope are misinformed like this. It's a very poor exercise in understanding what a balanced diet looks like.

I don't know, aga.
I told him the same thing but he still thinks he needs to explain.

And that right there is exactly what I am "frothing" and over reacting" about.

He has been made to feel like he is doing something wrong when all we are doing is going out for dinner.
That's a problem to me.
It's also a problem to say make stuff up so it sounds like he is eating good food.
Teaching 10 year olds to lie about "bad food" is ludicrous.

All of this..it's asking for kids to fall into an unhealthy relationship with food IMO

I remember in the 80s with all the whole meal bread, flour etc being advised even white eggs went out of fashion!

Cue my mother boiling them in tea in a master stroke of one up-man-ship!

"Because all teachers are automatically infallible, are they?"

I never said that teachers were infallible, but this will be one part of a scheme of work. Looking at nutritional values, healthy diet etc.

When used correctly the food diary can be analysed and broken down in to the foods components.

I expect that the teacher will be shocked at the problems that this has caused, but it does not make it a ridiculous exercise.

capsium posted that "parents do have a right to comment on what goes on in schools. Parents will care about how their children are taught." and I don't disagree but she also posted "there more and less effective ways to go about this." A measured approach is needed.