Is it just me, or does anyone get annoyed at the volume of junk food that is offered to their young children by other well-meaning adults?

I drop my kids off at a mom’s group play group and return to find out they’ve been packed full of cookies right before lunch. Preschool snacks? You guess it, more cookies. Even the doctor’s office isn’t safe. After a brief check-up, my three-year-old is immediately offered a lollipop.

If adults are considerate enough to ask if I want my child to be loaded with sugar, 90 percent of the time it’s in front of my child–making me the bad guy if I say no. “Can Bode have a freezie?” as they are mid-way through handing it to him.

Now we all know that children love sugar. And we all know that it’s empty calories and prevents them from filling up on healthy, nutritious foods. Shouldn’t there be some kind of junk-food etiquette when it comes to feeding junk to other people’s children?

Is it too much to ask for a private conversation that lets me say no without my toddler ever having to know that junk food was on the table?

Tags: children, ettiquette, junk food, nutrition, toddler

This entry was posted on Monday, September 20th, 2010 at 9:54 am and is filed under Nancy's Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.