Let Them Eat Cake!

My 10-year-old's public elementary school sent home a notice this week:

"As many of you may already be aware, a significant number of children are at risk for medical conditions related to increase in weight, poor nutrition and allergies. In an effort to promote continued health and wellness, we are asking staff and parents to decrease the amount of food related activities in the school environment."

For a school system that has tended to use M&Ms to teach kindergardeners math and trotted in greasy pizzas to demonstrate fractions, this policy isn't entirely a bad thing, I thought.

But the next line of the notice was a shocker: "Recognizing that many of your children enjoy celebrating birthdays, we request that you work with the classroom teacher to find other, 'non-food' ways to celebrate birthdays. Food items such as cupcakes, cookies, and the like may no longer be brought to school and distributed to students."

In other words: Cupcakes are now contraband.

My town is not alone. Nationwide over the past year or so, there's been a movement to ban birthday sweets. Give kids a nice pencil for their big day, school administrators say. Perhaps a card.

As anyone who has ever been a kid knows, a birthday is the axis around which the kid year revolves. Many of the months and days leading up to the day are spent... well, counting the months and days leading up to the day. It's a day when a child can feel special -- a day that is theirs alone.

So it feels Grinch-like to enforce a no-cake policy. But circumventing one of the joys of childhood is not the only problem here. Banning birthday cupcakes suggests that treats are never a good idea. It promotes abstinence over moderation, which, when it comes to a youth's developing relationship with food, isn't such a hot idea. The inevitable giving in to temptation inevitably results in guilt and self-loathing.

Not to mention an out-of-school culture that's... well, saturated with powerful branding of fatty fast-food. But an authoritarian response -- banning cake -- will merely make the contraband more desirable...

What's more, it feels a little silly to fight fat by banning birthday cupcakes, especially since at the same time that cupcakes are banned at my daughter's elementary school she can still buy chips and cookies every lunchtime in the cafeteria.

So what about fighting obesity and diabetes with the tools that really make a difference: promoting healthy-eating habits, encouraging treats in moderation, and increasing playground time?

As Rep. Jim Dunnam, a Waco (Texas) Democrat who led a pro-cupcake charge in his Texas town last year, put it, "having a cupcake for your birthday -- if that's where we're at in trying to fight obesity in the United States, then we're way behind the curve."

Comments

[Zil]

In my opinion, the reason for the no food/treats is not obesity, it is the allergy situation and the cleanliness situation. The no treats is just the follow up to the "health" rule that NO homemade food is allowed in schools anymore, only store bought - and really, who's kidding who? that's no longer any safer either as we have seen so very clearly over the past 6 months starting with our poor pet food and then on to toothpaste and who knows how wide the impact...

We need to put the rules and the safeguards in the right places, but since they're not there, everyone looks to cya so they won't be held
responsible for a tragedy that may have been prevented with Orwellian tactics (like now NO-ONE can bring liquid on a plane - come on!!!)

Who's looking at why these allergies are increasing so and why the severity
is increasing... who's getting to the root of the problem - not as many people as impacted by the no cupcake rule -

So in the meantime, I agree with you, let them eat cake, but unfortunately from all my days in business and on the other side of the school equation, I understand the CYA stance - sux!

[anon004]

I agree that if your school cafeteria sells all kinds of junk food and soda, or there are vending machines in every hallway doing the same, it is hypocritical of them to ban cupcakes. However, as far as making choices are concerned, that is a situation where the kids are more free to make a choice (i.e., not to buy the stuff, or buy other stuff, or bring a lunch, etc.). In a classroom where the cupcakes are handed out to each kid, it's not really a situation where they can learn to make choices, especially if they aren't offered anything else to choose. As far as "knee-jerk," one of the other commenters was right. There was a time when there was only one fat kid in the class (uh, that would have been me, BTW). We have been facing an obesity epidemic in children for several years now. I guess it seems about time to me that the schools tried to address the situation. Maybe I feel the way I do because I'm personally affected by it. (Just a guess, but your kids can eat anything and not gain weight, am I right?) My husband has type I diabetes, which makes my son genetically susceptible, especially if he's overweight. I guess I'll take whatever help I can get keeping my kid healthy, even if it offends the "pro-cupcake" crowd. Besides, kids are basically trapped in school, so the they can't get away from things that are being done/given to them (which is why so many of us object to things like organized prayer in the schools). Can't you just have a birthday party at home (or at Chuck E Cheese), and then give your kid and his friends all the cupcakes they want?

[Mack Collier]

"It promotes abstinence over moderation, which, when it comes to a youth's developing relationship with food, isn't such a hot idea. The inevitable giving in to temptation inevitably results in guilt and self-loathing."

Great point Ann. Instead of teaching children to avoid sweets, wouldn't it be more constructive to spend more time teaching them how to eat healthier? And at their age, telling a child NOT to do something is the quickest way to ensure that they will try their best to do it.

[Ann Handley]

Thanks for the perspectives, all. I understand we are talking about more than a single cupcake a year.. and I get the issues about sanitation and allergies. But nevertheless, the school system's response to ban cupcakes nevertheless seems both knee-jerk and hypocritical, given what's sold in the cafeteria. I'd rather see the effort put into education, but maybe that's too radical a suggestion for a... uh... school.

Teaching kids to make healthy choices teaches them that they have... well, a choice.

[anon004]

Yes, giving the kids one cupcake should not be a problem. However, that assumes that the class only celebrates one of the kids' birthdays every year. Guess what? They celebrate ALL the kids birthdays every year! So, if your kid is in a class of twenty to thirty kids, that's twenty to thirty cupcakes per year! The other thing that happens is that we can't neglect the kids who have birthdays over the summer, so, what do they do? They spend the last weeks of school "celebrating" all the birthdays of the kids who were born in the summer. Great, get the kids all sugared up and send them home for 10 weeks! Thanks a lot! Throw in about five or six holidays per year, and you've got a major sugar-fest going on. My son has a weight problem and we make sure we provide him with a good diet (not only do we avoid sweets, but we even limit his carb intake). We also make sure he gets exercise (my husband takes him on bike rides, I take him to karate, my sister-in-law is teaching him to swim, and he plays outside with the kids in the neighborhood every day after school that the weather permits). It's disheartening to make all this effort, only to be sabotaged by the school district. What's wrong with giving out pencils? The pencils further academic goals, which is why the kids are there in the first place, not to party. Hey, what about giving the kids fruit instead of sugar and refined flour? That would teach them something about nutrition, too. Makes too much sense, I guess.

[LauraCollins]

Stop the madness, not the cupcakes!

This wave of food fear associated with children is an uncontrolled experiment of unknown effect on our most vulnerable members. The anti-fat hysteria isn't making anyone healthier: it is causing eating disorders triggered by disordered eating.

[megb]

A school is finally trying to take a tiny step in the right direction and what do they get? A pro-cupcake charge! Is this really what our representatives should be doing in a time like this?

[coolmaiden]

Kids can only tolerate so many scratch-and-sniff stickers and miniature cars that adults break their ankles on. They're CHILDREN for goodness sakes. Let's teach them that cupcakes are treats designated for birthdays only and not let them down by acting as if their weight problem is their fault and not ours for giving them the wrong food all the time in the first place.

[bethinCary]

My child went to a school where there was a no- peanuts rule. Some of the kids were highly allergic. The whole school adapts just fine. I've done birthdays with her-by bringing in lunch for her and her friends.
Most cakes and boxed mixes have peanuts in them-which is why it is dangerous.
Just went to an open house at my daughters school-where one teacher was discussing having a toddler in a daycare center with severe food allergies and wokers had given the girl the wrong foods. She almost died as a result when her throat closed up. she had to be revived by an EPI pen.
Food allergies are a BIG problem with kids.

[eaglecapri]

Cupcakes should not be banned. One cupcake does not make a child fat. Nutrition starts at home. It's amazing what lurks in many refrigerators and cabinets. Birthday cupcakes are not to blame. It used to be, as children, we were all skinny. Maybe there was one 'fat' kid in the class. So, what happened? Watching excessive amounts of the idiot box, playing video games, no afterschool physical activity, sugar breakfast cereals and microwave or fat-filled dinners? Uh....yeah!

What happened to jumping rope, hopscotch, climbing trees, riding bikes and hide and seek, to name a few? And these were games played AFTER school. Who participates in community sports, anymore? I remember every summer playing softball through the park district.

I hate to say this, but it all starts at home. Parents, stop buying the junk. Sure kids will buy the junk at school for lunch. My highschool years were full of taco pizza, fries, a Suzy-Q and a chocolate shake. However, I knew I wouldn't be able to get anything like that at home. Thank Goodness! College was much better although who could resist Smart Food during mid-terms?

It takes a considerable amount of calories to gain and maintain an overweight-to-obese stature. Let's not introduce, promote or accept bad eating habits. And besides, kids who tend to participate in activites tend not to snack at home due to sheer boredom. Get the kids active in swimming, martial arts, ballet, etc.

And, not only does it start at home, it starts with us, the adults. We definitely should know better by now.

By all means, bring the cupcakes back!

[flatus]

It aint about the eatin', it's about the sittin'.

We allow the sittin', it's about the lurkin' perverts roamin' your neighborhood.

[CLN]

No one is telling you that you cannot give your child 100 cupcakes on his/her birthday. They are just saying you cannot give my kid a cupcake on your kid's birthday. That's okay with me. In addition to the food preference/obesity angle, there is a huge issue with safety and sanitation that is also behind the "no treat" ruling. How do you know the cupcakes I am passing out are not filled with poison? or mouse droppings? or salmonella because I didn't sanitize my kitchen counter? It's a crazy world and schools are doing their best to protect our kids.

[SEQUOIABISON]

Excellent Response.

[mommadona]

Well, let's see now....

JELLO? (made from the hooves of dead animals)
Maybe not.

POPCORN? (as long as it's not that cancer-causing microwave kind)

WOOD CHIPS? (there ya go.)