to be fed up with the Government telling me what to eat?

[meltedmarsbars]

Its never-ending, and now school have sent my dc's home with charts to fill in for "healthy eating" targets and "move more" targets, to record for a MONTH how they get on!

Its intrusive and patronising!

How do I tell them to bog off?

Well you don't have to listen to the government, but surely the school charts are just to record what your kids eat etc? so the kids are more aware? i.e it's not really aimed at you is it?

Actually, are the charts for a particular topic at school (science, phse, maths?) or are they for some kind of school sensus? I would be happy enough with the first but not the second. Too intrusive.

am loving your name, meltedmarsbars. worried too many of them will be on the chart?

The hilarious part is they even sent home a healthy eating chart with the nil-by-mouth peg-fed dd2!!

It's homework for the school's healthy school mark, I assume.

I just don't see what business it is of theirs what we eat. We are already a healthy family (apart from the obvious dd2) so they can B**r off as far as I am concerned!

I am binning it!

I think its a good idea to encourage healthy eating and I know that my sons nursery have healthy eating displays etc BUT a few days ago I offered my son a bag of raisins and he asked if he was "be fat".He is 3 so I think really too young to worry about this.

So are as I'm concern, pringles are a vegable.

If you have the sour cream & chive version, that counts as 2 portions of veg.

If you have a glass of wine too, that's 3.

Seabright: One glass of wine and you can't spell vegetable!!

My (healthy, life-long vegetarian) teenage DD has had what seem to be numerous surveys of this kind passed her way at school. Being the bolshy little blighter that she is, she has put in all manner of things in reply as she is peed off that the school are spending time in questioning what she eats and drinks rather than teaching her English and Maths.

So oh my word, she replied to a drugs questionnaire that she takes them... well, she said, caffiene is a drug and I drink tea! And it was yes to alcohol consumption too as she is allowed the occasional glass of (weak) lager shandy at family get-togethers and to try my glass of wine (and is offered a small/lemonade mixed glass of her own occasionally but declines as she doesn't like the taste!).

I don't recommend her reponse (especially if your child is younger than mine!) but amongst the and I felt am secretly at my DDs responses and totally agree with you that these questionnaires are intrusive and patronising. By the time my Grandad left school at the age of 12 he had a far better, in-depth and wider knowledge of history, geography and the like than my 14 yo DD and command of English and knowledge of maths which led him to be a very successful, articulate, considerate and capable businessmen... yet (or perhaps because) he never once was given the task of describing his diet and exercise routine.

Gah! It makes me cross! I'd put the ruddy things in the bin if I were you (but then it's not me or my DC who have to answer to the school!).

Oh I agree entirely with the sentiment , and meltetmarsbars I'd just say..er..bog off!

• though to be fair I think that there are some poor kids who clearly have not had especially responsible dietary example/instruction (call it what you will) so I do not feel that the execise is entirely pointless.

BW, ever tried them frozen instead of melted?

I wish something like this would've been around when I was younger. Might've made a difference to my mum's attitudes to what she fed us. I grew up on ready meals as dinner and whatever junk I wanted inbetween. As a result, I was an obese child and teenager and it took me years of struggling to change my habits and get to a healthy weight.

My little brother was allowed to drink litres of cola a day. I still remember a dental appointment when he was 7 years old where the dentist told him she'd expect to see teeth like his on a man of 70! My mum worked long hours and didn't have a clue about healthy eating.

I would say YAB a bit U because although it may be a waste of time to you, it might have some relevance to the parents of the 1/3 or whatever it is of kids who are overweight

YANBU
I 'm all for healthy eating but i don't think getting obsessed and having to write things down is helpfull at all. It is a good recipe for unhealthy relationship with food and for eating disorders.

If you and your family are svelte and fit, smile and continue your healthy ways.
If you or any of your family members are overweight, sit up and listen.
Simples.

I don't necessarily like that it's so pushed on kids, who then start to stress about everything they eat, so I don't like that part of it at all. However, I do think that some form of healthy eating does need to be taught in this day and age...the obesity rate is climbing, and kids are a lot less active than they used to be. Not every family needs this kind of information, but some very honestly do. So...if you are already a family that eats well and exercises, what's the big deal...let the kids do what they have to do to keep the teacher/school happy, and don't waste the energy getting riled up by it.

YANBU in that their message keeps changing, they demonise certain food groups unnecessarily, and from what I can see at some primary schools for example the diet they are advocating is actually unsuitable for children.

They also make things sound complicated when they should be giving people basic information and then encouraging them to be confident and use common sense.

That suggested menu plan on the school packed lunch website was a great example. If mums are making poor packed lunches, then encourage them to switch to half n half bread, include some cherry tomatoes, that sort of easy straighforward advice. Saying that they should be providing homemade 3 bean salads and avodcado and falaffel wraps is simply going to alienate people.

The problem with banging on at it like they do is that it is a great way of introducing children to an unhealthy relationship with food at a young age.

They should be teaching the facts about what components go into a balanced diet - which INCLDUES fats and sugars. Talk about processed foods vs homemade. Explain about how manufacturers often put unexpected ingredients into things to make them tase nicer. And so on.

This idea that fruit = good and fat/sugar = bad etc is all wrong and not helpful.

Cos the governemtn pick up the bill when you eat the wrong stuff?

That food manufacturers make far more money selling shite food that does you no good and they do not pick up the bill if you eat their shite food?

My dd2 refused to eat cheese for months because the school had told her in a healthy eating lesson that cheese was fattening. She was only 6 at the time ffs!

This seems to have happened quite a lot riven.

I guess it is right that children trust their teacher to tell the the right thing and to listen carefully to what they say and internalise it. Therefore when teacher says "cheese is bad, it will make you fat" children simply takes it at face value. I wonder if there is also a subtext to all of this that mummy and daddy don't know best when it comes to cooking and eating, and that message is subtely given to the children. A lot of people have had their children telling them what they should and shouldn't be eating, and parotting stock phrases.

A lot of parents have also felt that it's not a good idea to keep saying that their DC teacher is talking crap.

Riven I think a lot of children go through the "but Mrs baggypants said this....blah blah" especially at that young age when they are so into school and look up to their teachers so much so that the phase becomes a what teacher says must be true because teachers know everything.

I was at a the parent council meeting the other day and even the head teacher was saying that the healthy eating guidlines being given to her by the council are ridiculous.

The problem I have with them is they are not teaching healthy eating and balanced diet, they are preaching good food/bad foods.
They are telling our children that fruit and veg are good but cheese, butter, sugar, salt whatever are bad and they are not bad foods they are part of a balanced healthy diet.

This message I feel is setting us up for huge problems in the long term as they have the right intentions but the wrong message and are not actually educating our children on healthy eating at all.

Bump

But is this kind of intervention from the Govt going to change the eating habits of those obese families?

Riven: Teacher is God to 6 year-olds! Do you know the makaton signs for Teacher, Headteacher and God? Enlightening!!

Teaching children about healthy diet is positive. Monitoring everything they eat? Downright dangerous, especially in this cackhanded way.

Teaching them that they have to monitor every calorie, that whole classes of foods are verboten, and that they cannot make informed choices?

It's horrific.