If you can never say no to your kids’ food requests, why not have the government do it for you? We’ve already seen the same thing threatened in court, and now an op-ed in Newsday begs for the same release from parental responsibility.
Contributor Claudia Gryvatz Copquin admits in Thursday’s issue that she cannot stand up to her own children’s requests for food. “My grocery bill doubles when they shop with me,” Copquin writes, “for under the duress of public scrutiny, I cave to their childish palates.” The pendulum swings to the opposite extreme when she shops alone, bringing home “snacks” of “broccoli and carrots, bottled water and bran cereal.”
Even though Copquin seems to have little influence when it comes to her children’s food choices, she nevertheless bemoans her kids’ escape from her dietary control while at school. As a result, she endorses the school nutrition bill currently before Congress, which would update public school standards “to conform to current nutrition science.” (For our review of what “current nutrition science” actually says about the subject, click here.)
At what point will her children acquire responsibility? Ultimately, shouldn’t parental control be a temporary stop along the way to teaching kids self-control? That’s a personal habit which works even when our environment isn’t regulated to death.
