BellaOnline Forums Relationships Married No Kids The Learning Channel makes me want to puke!

Warning: Long Post

I hear what you are saying! I teach 1st grade and many kids in my school are in bad shape. I have had several that were already obese at 6! Some even had already started with high blood pressure! The blame game has gotten so bad, that our state now has a law forbidding schools from serving anything that has sugar listed as the 1st ingredient. I don't have a problem with that because the sugar makes them CRAZY, it's the reason why. Let's be reasonable. How could a kid by the age of 6 be clinically obese because of school lunches? The lunches weren't THAT bad! How is it the schools' fault? This problem stems directly from the problem of parents having these kids even though they either don't have the time and/or can't afford to feed their children properly, as well as teaching them healthy food choices from the beginning. Yet, because the schools get federal funding, it's our fault. God forbid the government holds the parent responsible! How about having their child tax credit witheld if their child isn't healthy and/or they are not proving themselves to be active in their child's education and/or their child is a discipline problem within the community.

Even though I would be classified a "selfish child-hater" by most, I really do LOVE my kids. Most of them come from financially strapped households with very questionable futures. I try so hard to not only teach them the designated curriculum, but common sense to avoid the situations they will ultimately come in contact with. I want to scream when these parents do the most stupid things that negates what I've been trying to do! I had to explain to a little girl last month, who said she loves BEER, why O'Doul's is not "kid's beer" because it does still have "stuff" in it that is against the law for kids to drink and that she shouldn't drink it again. Who do you think she'll listen to? Me or her dad?

I have started a crusade against these spineless, irresponsible
parents. If they don't show up for a parent-teacher conference,
they don't get their child's report card(I still had some from the 1st marking period by the last day of school), if they don't attend enough school, I bust my rear to make them repeat the grade and I have openly said that if ANY child hits me to cause pain (yes, it happened to an aide during the last 2 weeks of school), I WILL press charges against the parent(s).

I know what is required to be a good parent. That is why I don't want to be one. I don't think I could do it. That is me being responsible about parenting. Society needs to stop coddling these deadbeat parents and make THEM responsible. I might be getting a kid in my class next year whose entire family smokes pot on a daily basis. Mom and Dad obviously don't care because it continues,DYFS sadly, doesn't care either because he is still in the home, yet if he is in my class, and he fails, that is going to be my fault. HA! Society is doomed.

Yehonala have you ever seen the school cook, cook? My kids cook put pounds of butter in everything, always. Even the tunafish for sandwiches. It was so wrong. So it may very well be a piece to the problem, along with Mickey D's and videos and the lack of required physical education in the schools. But parents are also a piece of the problem. Maybe soccer moms aren't so crazy afterall.

If parents don't like what is on the menu, they should send their kids to school with lunch. I brought my lunch for years, and I saved myself a heck of a lot of money by doing so. Every once in a while I had the fries, but those days were few and far between. I did eat lunch occasionally when I was in grade school - I loved the torpedo sandwiches and every Thursday was pizza day. But I was the skinniest little kid back then, all skin and bones, so I don't think school lunch had anything to do with it. Most of my friends ate lunch at school every day, and everyone was pretty small.

The fact is that the government is trying to step in and take over for parents because so many parents have no idea what they are doing. It is up to parents to monitor what their child eats and how much, or at least to see that there is a problem. The woman down the street is a pediatric nurse, her youngest is 11, and he has weighed more than me for the last 2 years (I am 150.) But has she stopped buying junk food? No. Of all people who should recognize a problem, it would be her, don't you think?

It's not much better on HGTV. Sure, they don't have you looking straight at a gaping, bloody [censored], but it's ALLLL about the kids.

One of the shows I used to love to watch was "House Hunters," but it has slowly gotten on my nerves. It seems every show has a couple looking for a house because "their family is quickly expanding!" Of course, the mom is always 9 months pregnant and they keep focusing on her with her hand rubbing her beach-ball-sized belly. And with every room they look at, they make some lame comment like, "This is a great room for Ashley!" or "This bedroom is a perfect room for Tyler. He'll love looking out the window!" or "Kaylee will love sitting on this stool in the kitchen!"

Then, if that wasn't enough for you, they cut to a Lowe's commercial where the kids are the ones picking out the appliances. Or the commercial for a realty company where the wife says "we're looking for a house in a neighborhood that's all about the kids!" Really? Don't you count? Aren't YOU and YOUR HUSBAND the ones paying the mortgage, taxes, insurance, and maintenance? Are you worth nothing now that you gave birth. And, no, I don't want to see your gaping, bloody [censored], thankyouverymuch!

jez - I totally agree with you on the HGTV thing. Ever since we bought our house 2 years ago, we've become HGTV addicts. Now I am also into AE's "Flip this House" - real-estate and remodeling stuff just fascinates me. However, I have noticed what you noticed - how more of HGTV's shows have been focusing on big families finding new houses, kid-oriented organization, remodeling kids' rooms, etc. I hate that kids are trying to take over a normal, adult-oriented channel, in addition to all the others out there. "House Hunters" is a fun show, when it doesn't revolve around a family exploding out of its existing house because they can't stop having kids, but like you said, those episodes are few and far between anymore....such a shame.

Exactly! I hate disciplining people, and having to be on G behavior all the time, because they pick up on everything. (YA KNOW, JUST SOME OF THE FUN INVOLVED IN PARENTING). I know it's a tough job, and I don't like to be overly judgemental of parents, but with the clowns in my neighborhood, it's really hard. And some of the adults I know were clearly raised by nut jobs, and they carry that insanity into their adult life. Especially the children of alcoholics. The ones that were raised to believe the world revolves around them still believe that as adults!

Oh yes!!! I saw a preview for some show about a family with like 16 kids....and then that other family with the Asian husband with about six or seven kids. Barf. Why are these people glorified??? Then these shows act like we are supposed to feel sorry for them? I want to rip my own head off just watching shows like that and SuperNanny, et al. I only watch just long enough for me to feel better about myself.

I think it is Discovery Health Channel that has all those miracle baby shows too. Stop the insanity!

I've seen a show or two on that family... they're now expecting baby #17. I find it fascinating in a weird way b/c their life is so very different from mine!

Yeah I find those shows really fascinating too, depending on the parents.

The ones with 17 kids, the parents/ twist on the show makes me CRAZY so I didn't watch long. There's another one with 13 or more kids, and it was a different feel. They do one anual b-day party for all the kids. They invite something like 150 people and keep it to a $200 budget. AMAZING.

And the sextuplet show also fascinates me, because I'm way ocd like the Mom, and love to sleep in like her as well. They called the miscarraige of the 7th baby their "miracle", and they were really concerned that they RUINED their twins lives. I find that I can identify with them as people, but I'd fall over if I had to live their life for even one day. Oh, and she manages to feed all her family mostly organic and otherwise balanced nutritous meals on a budget. Even preparing a weeks worth ahead for when she had surgery. Watching stuff like that makes me feel so inadequate/lazy. I have a hard time feeding 2 people (with my partner's help) healthy well balanced meals.

I suppose it's kinda like when I watched a show on the military (like west point) while I was in college. I saw all the stuff they got accomplished and how hard core they were, while I went to a comparatively easy school, and still couldn't make it to class regularly if it was scheduled before noon.

Puts things in perspective

The thing is that I COULD do all that stuff. I can't imagine that it would be more difficult than graduate school. I was working 3 jobs including being a 20-hour TA at the school, plus I had to watch 3-4 films a week, write a 2-page paper on each, plus writing a 2-page paper every week for each class, plus the 30-page final projects for each class, plus filming my own documentaries and grading all the papers for the classes I was teaching myself as a TA ...

I was getting about 4 hours of sleep a night and was CONSTANTLY doing something.

So I COULD do it. I just don't want to. And I'm sure that most of you could do it too, but you say you couldn't - it's that you don't WANT to do it.