Am I being the difficult parent?

[The3]

Dc came home with a sheet to record her diet and exercise over the course of a week, plus a box each day to fill in to say whether it was a good day or not.

I felt uncomfortable about this - I don’t think a primary school aged child should be focussing on diet, or on exercise as something in itself rather than as a normal part of play.

For context, she has a healthy BMI. There might be one or two kids in the entire school who are overweight, but most kids are very healthy. She is in Y2 and I don’t want her to pick up on “x is healthy” or “y is unhealthy” - I just want her to enjoy food and play and not think about it very much at this age.

AIBU to send a polite note to the teacher saying I don’t want her to do this homework?

Good luck with your note, I think you've made the right decision if you have concerns.

I had a similar homework task when I was 10, keeping a record of what we ate over the course of a week and discussing it everyday as a class who had eaten a healthy breakfast that morning, what we were having for lunch etc. I was already a healthy eater but became aware that I could be making even "healthier" choices ALL the time. Less than a year later I had developed anorexia that became severe, very nearly killed me on four separate occasions and lasted 18 years robbing me of my teens and 20s.

I work with children now and never set this type of task. There are better ways to educate young people about staying healthy.

Makes total sense to teach primary children about what food is healthy to eat. Really dont get why op is so against it, we have so much obesity in the country.

I agree - I know too many kids who have totally misunderstood healthy eating lessons in school as they were too young. One girl in particular got so stressed by it that she would only eat vegetables for quite a long period of time - she was 6.

Ooh! Yes! Make it up!
Say she did two hours of yoga before her bowl of organic yaks yoghurt!

^ Do that and make a game out of it. All in good fun!

Makes total sense to teach primary children about what food is healthy to eat. Really dont get why op is so against it, we have so much obesity in the country.

The answer to that is, children will take things literally. It took me some time to undo this kind of teaching with my DD. (Who is healthy and very active. We have treats in moderation and definitely not the crisps and chocolate with every lunch people). But it did make her question food choices as in not wanting to eat any treats as they are "bad" or make you "sick". Not on!
I think the teaching should be focusing on eating as many different foods as possible. Not "goo d" v "bad"!

Just to say, talk to the teacher, but the teacher is just doing what is on the curriculum. You never know, in talking to the teacher they may be able to explain why they are teaching it this way, or you may be able to point out that this resource isn't the best!

In primary that would be too much imo.

In secondary I'd say having a look at your habits is fair enough as long as you didn't have to share it with class as that would be really unkind.

I agree OP. We had the same homework at our school. We didn't do it either and I sent a quick note explaining why.

Healthy eating, when done well, is a valuable lesson. It is on the curriculum because, unfortunately, some children have a less than ideal diet. BUT the way some schools are doing this is not constructive.
In KS1
Constructive: balanced diet, healthy choices as in not eating 17 bags of Haribo, children having more of an idea of what is in their food ('What's in meatballs?' 'Beef.' 'I don't think I'll like meatballs.' 'Well you like spag bol.' 'Is that beef?' 'Yep.' 'Oh, I might like meatballs' He did like meatballs!
Not constructive : snacks must not be over 100 calories ever! Cheese is bad! Fruit juice is bad because of the sugar. Burgers are bad (homemade burger with salad vs prepackaged "salad" - yeah I'm not sure the salad would actually win on the healthy eating stakes)

The majority of this thread has annoyed me so much i can't even be bothered to try an d educate people and diminish their warped opinions. It is highly irresponsible as parents to believe that such activities are not suitable for young children. You should take a look at the state of the countries health. There are many statistics available online.

Yes, understanding how our young children view 'good' & 'bad' is warped. Get a grip

I agree user. The 'let's take the piss out of teachers trying to educate children about healthy eating because we personally already do it' tone of this thread, isn't great.
Many posters have also opted to not consider the actual work set, but have changed it to suit their own agenda.

In secondary I'd say having a look at your habits is fair enough
Its WAY to late to teach children about good food habits when they are in secondary. They make all their habits when they are young. We need to educate them when they are young.

No child HAS to have sweets.

Absolutely dreadful idea.

A no food is bad but an overall diet can be less than healthy. So 5 healthy days and 2 less than healthy days aren't really going to hurt.

B doesn't sound like they've taken into consideration the children with disabilities (highly unlikely there's none) who are advised to limit activity (eg my dd with hms) or with conditions that at least occasionally require "bad" foods to stay healthy - eg type 1 diabetics needing sugar sometimes, some conditions require a high fat diet.

C children this young are quite literal and very black & white thinking, this could be confusing. Eg cheese high fat BUT healthy because full of calcium and other nutrients.

D if these sheets are going to be displayed/discussed at school may make problem eaters prime targets for bullying which is the LAST thing they need.

E to my mind pretty much a template for ED triggering. The teachers don't have the knowledge or expertise to manage the myriad of issues around healthy eating/exercise and could easily do/say something a vulnerable child latches onto.

"Isn't it just for them to understand what foods are good for them and which ones are not? As opposed to being on an actual diet." Except as per the post above (stating cheese unhealthy) teachers often give wrong info as they're not dieticians. Plus no FOOD is bad it's the overall diet.

Chocolate - iron, calcium, protein, magnesium

Crisps - vitamin c, vitamin b6, magnesium again even a little iron and protein again.

"we don't put value judgements on food." Excellent perspective and sums up why this makes me very uncomfortable.

Most teachers ime because they don't have expertise in this area base the info they give on what's healthy for an adult. Growing children have different needs.

IF the govt expects teachers to take on a healthy eating mentoring role they first have to give the TEACHERS the education/info because some of the crap I've heard/been told/read that teachers come out with on this subject is astounding and potentially harmful.

And then I read an example:
"I was absolutely furious when it was suggested to DD that cheese, eggs and milk were 'high fat' and should be limited whilst pasta, potatoes and rice were slow release low fat energy foods.
Madness." Exactly!

"The increase in processed food and destruction of cooking skills is what’s causing obesity" totally agree.

Last year of primary, with a well informed teacher would be best for this homework.

Its part of the Y2 science curriculum. It's done as part of living s healthy lifestyle. Part of this includes talking about all fits in moderation. Its not just about weight, it's about nutrition and looking at the benefits of including each did group and the exercise can be anything - it doesn't have to be a sport. It's actually a great thing to do if done properly. Nobody is saying tell the children not to eat X,y,z or mentioned being overweight.

So many parents think they know the full story from a snippet and go all guns blazing at teachers.

If there focussing on weight and telling children to exclude food then I agree that's very poor. If not, crack on with the homework and talk to your child about the benefit of eating that Apple or why it's actually okay to have that bag of crisps. Use it to encourage a positive relationship with food.

Typos all over the place there. Too many to correct.

We talk to my nearly five-year-old about what food is healthy and what vitamins etc. do for her. Knowing about nutrition should be an essential part of a person's education, surely. It's not as if they are teaching them to count their calories.

I think if I was a teacher and a parent refused to help their dc fill that in, I'd assume they had a pretty poor diet that they were embarrassed of.

I think its good to teach children about healthy choices and moderation. Alot of the dc in my ds school are overweight. And I know its their parents that buy the food and feed them, but educating youngsters about their food at least gives them some chance to say, 'mum, can you buy some apples this week'.