Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Cirrhosis of the brain

I am irritated, oh so irritated, by the government's alleged plan to ban drinking games in pubs. It's endless, endless chipping away at pubs (which are shutting down by the dozen) and doing nothing about the supermarkets. I'm not against getting rid of absurd drinks promotions, but it should affect supermarkets too, not just go for the pubs & clubs. A huge part of the "binge-drinking problem" is that people get rat-arsed before they even go out.

I used to do that when I was younger, and if I was a young adult now I probably wouldn't even consider going out without 'front-loading'. All this will achieve is more pubs closing and encouraging drinking in parks, streets and unsupervised places, and we'll drown our livers just the same.

Bloody nanny state... And I love the nanny state.

And another thing, the criticism of what parents put in lunch-boxes for school. All my children's schools have had a policy of no sweets/fizzy drinks/chocolate in packed lunches, and that's fine by me. I wouldn't want a classful of kids hopped up on sugar if I were their teacher either, aside from any health or dental concerns.

Is that not good enough? No no, crisps and white bread are on the guilt-list as well. I'll hold my hands up to a packet of crisps. My kids get a good breakfast: wholemeal* bread for their toast, porridge sometimes, the better cereals; they snack on fruit and veg; they have decent home-cooked meals for their tea.

F--- off with your crisps-in-lunchbox guilt!

Let's take every pleasure away and demonise more foods, we need to be saved from ourselves.


* Note the wholemeal!

4 comments:

Ellie said...

Couldn't agree more about the packed lunch thing - lets face it kids who have poor diets are not going to be transformed by a packed lunch. As soon as they get home they'll start on the junk if they are so inclined. As for the kids who have a healthy balance like yours, restrictions just makes it tougher on the parents putting the lunch together. My son can't eat wholemeal bread on account of repercussions no one wants to think about, so it's got to be white.

I wasn't comfortable with the fact they were weighed in Year 6 either - even my son fretted, but the girls were really obsessed with it, 11 is a sensitive age for girls. Have the powers that be ever considered how many anorexics they may be sparking off?

Mephitis said...

Yes, this sort of guilt-imposing advice totally doesn't take into account that different children have different requirements. They're not all obese couch potatoes :).

My son's got a dairy allergy so he ends up with a diet that is really too low in calories, yet all the messages he gets are that foods containing fats are bad so it makes it harder to get him to eat the high-fat foods he genuinely needs.

I don't like the sound of weigh-ins. Does seem a dangerous path.

Ellie said...

The weigh in is done by nurses, supposedly discreetly - they are not told the weight at the time but it's posted to parents later along with advice.

The reality of 11 year olds meant that it was a hot topic of conversation - the girls in competition to be the lightest. I don't think much thought has been given to the psychology of this age group.

Mephitis said...

Mindboggling.