Just seen pictures in the papers of two FAT women passing takeaway food through the school bars to children in a secondary school where the school has opted for "healthy eating".     These two women say that their kids only eat fast food - ok - so let them kill their own if they want to - but why, when other parents wish their children to eat healthily (otherwise they would be giving them a packed lunch, I presume) - should they go against parental wishes and plain common sense?

Margot

to make themselves feel better.

my ex husbands nephew and neice are grossly overweight. so is there mother. i mean seriously, the girl is 13 and a size 18 and the boy who is 11 is not much better. when they go out they really really stuff their faces - yet no-one in the family stops them and makes them have a salad instead of chips!! grandma is the same. there really is no excuse either - its jujst lazy living and BAD FOOD!

How awful and it's been proven that feeding them the healthier diet not only makes them better physically but also mentally

One of them justifying what they are doing "we are giving the children what they want":rolleyes:

Have they never thought of "what they need"??

In my opinion, to feed kids junk food making them obese is a form of child abuse!  :(

We should be like Sweeden all children get free school dinners, meat and veg, salads.
Then they will probly grow up to feed there own children proper food.
It is partly the goverments fault they have taken cooking lessons out of the class rooms.
When I say I still bake, people say "how great" "I wish I knew how"
I was lucky my Mother came from the country, were they all baked, also always had cooked meals.
So, it passes down families. But a lot of city people don't even cook a Sunday Lunch any more
Poor children were is the roast beef and Veg! This is part of the problem

We should be like Sweeden all children get free school dinners, meat and veg, salads.

I would agree with that.  Reduce the family allowance or whatever it's called these days and give a free, wholesome, nutritional, cooked from scratch meal to every child at school. :)

We should be like Sweeden all children get free school dinners, meat and veg, salads.
Then they will probly grow up to feed there own children proper food.

Yes and no. It is good that only good food is given -I was only saying that this morning to hubby. There is no such thing as chips in Swedish schools for instance, or drinks other than water, milk or pure fruit juice. But I used to have nightmares about the school dinners as you were FORCED to eat even things you didn't like -the dinner ladies and teachers said you had to try, and one bite was never enough. It had the effect on me that by the time I was 13 and moved to the next school where they weren't strict about lunch attendance I skipped school dinners every single day, and I've grown up being extremely picky about food -and very fat. I don't know how much things have changed in Sweden sicne I was a school kid of course (left school in 82). The week's menu is published in the national newspapers so you know what is what (and hence know what day to leg it!) but when I googled right now I couldn't find any menues online.

Our dinner ladies were the same in the old days ;)  I remember trying desperately to hide my sprouts under a, sadly sacrificed, bit of mash but I have always felt it did me good and it taught me to be a little wider in my tastes..............so perhaps it is nature versus nurture again ;)

Isabel - seeing you talk of what you did with sprouts just remided me of a boxer we had when our boys were still at school ...she had dreadful wind at times, and we found out why when we caught them passing their sprouts to her under the table! They'd been doing it for years! :D

I was saddened to see these women with their takeaway food after so much good has been done to improve the type of food given in schools. Until I saw Jamie Olivers series, I had no idea that the food available to school children included fizzy drinks, junk food and sweets vending machines!

And TrishaH your boxer reminded me of when my son was about three years old.

He had a plastic policeman's helmet that he wore everywhere. Sprouts were his favourite vegetable but he hated carrots. My OH hates food being wasted and insisted that he had to eat one carrot regardless. They came to an agreement that he would eat the carrot if he was allowed to wear his policemans helmet to the table (usually not allowed) and the compromise worked so after that he was given a normal serving with his dinners as long as the headgear was allowed to be worn.

One day I happened to look up and saw gravy running down from my son's hairline. I lifted up the policeman's helmet and balanced on the top of his head was a pile of carrots!
From that day on the helmet was banned at mealtimes. :D :D :D

Brilliant! :D :D

They're taking the money the other children's parents have given them for their dinner at school (judging by the examples given, healthier and cheaper) and buying expensive junk. I think it's criminal, and certainly a form of abuse.

oh i saw this on the news and i couldnt believe it. And that woman trying to justify it by saying that theyre giving the children what they want! so its ok then. Its terrible, my mum went to a confrence about things like this because shes a teacher and they said something like children might not outlive their parents. If everyone just ate real food everything would be fine but theres not such thing as realy food, its all fake.

When my children were small my BIL once jokingly called me cruel for restricting sweets to once a week.  I told him, no, I was being kind. 

As for those women, well, if I found out they were buying and supplying my children chips and burgers through the school gates I would go balistic.  What a terrible example they are setting not just in supplying the food but also in undermining the school's authority and parents' too.  What are the other parents saying about it? I would be very concerned that a school allows anything to be passed through to children from outside whether it be food or more sinister substances.  However, I think in this case it needs parent power to stop this straight away and if the food being served at school is that bad then the parents concerned should take that up with the school and caterers.

stepping off soap box now :D

Totally disgusting

Are the school not doing anything?  Surely they can be threatened with trespass?  If I was a parent there I would be demanding they took some sort of action.

They're not coming onto school property - they're selling the food through the fence!! The school's contacted the council to see if they're breaking regulations about hygeine or trading without a licence. There's not a lot else they can do. :(

I think the schoold could be rather more proactive, for instance, by prevented the children from getting to the fence, perhaps by fencing again further into the property if forbidding them within passing distance was not enough.  Are there no playground supervisors anymore?  I think the trading without a licence has got to be a good line to pursue as well.

I find it amazing that parents would actually want their children to eat chip shop food regularly surely good, healthy lean meat, vegetables and fruit is what children need?   If the dinners provided by the school aren't up to scratch then a healthy packed lunch is still possible at a fraction of the price of a chip shop 'meal' ;)   

Have to say we have the most wonderful chip shop near us tho :)  you can order a full roast dinner from them on a sunday, roast beef or chicken, potatoes, vegetables gravy - the lot and they deliver it too :)  I haven't tried it as I prefer home-cooked food but the OAPs think it's great :) :)

They were going to interview one of the mothers which I think were called Tray and Shaz or something similar from what I can remember

Seriously now they were going to interview one or both of them on BBC breakfast this morning but had to go out so missed it but would have been interested to hear what they had to say :)

Is this school served in all UK schools or does is vary from school to school? Me and my brother vere very lucky to go to Walfdorf School and the food was great! It was mostly vegetarian, but you also had a choice of meat dishes (prepared in a very healthy way). So I guess if I ever have kids, I'll probably just stick to Walfdorf , at least I know what they will be eating......

School food in the UK is diabolical since they went over to cafeteria-style dining halls and giving children a choice which includes junk food. Most schools now don't even have cooking facilities - only the ability to reheat food which is brought in by outside caterers. :(

Back in the Dark Ages when I was at school, the only choice was whether you wanted a small or ordinary portion of the one meal on offer. There were plenty of water jugs on the tables, and large dishes of food were collected from the kitchens by two people from each table, and served by the teacher, monitor or prefect at the head of the table. The staff all ate the same as the children, at the same time. After the main course had been eaten the pudding course was served in the same way - not all on the same tray as nowadays.

Little-un's school are lucky enough to have a kitchen onsite where the food is all freshly prepared and very healthy, but most of the schools in our town have food transported in from a central kitchen :rolleyes: this does nothing for the quality of the food and I wouldn't pay for that kind of rubbish, they don't even have reheating facilities so often the food is lukewarm or cold by the time the children get it, regardless of the temperature it ought to be :(  

When my eldest was at school she had school dinners twice, they were so awful that she always took a packed lunch or came home for lunch.  Little-un has packed lunch because of his dietary needs, apart from Christmas when I take in a cooked dinner for him to eat with the other children

I really hate those trays that the children have to eat from, no plates etc :(  but Little-un persuaded me to buy one to use occasionally at home as he wanted to try out what the other children use in school :rolleyes: 

HMMMM .....at our school I have to say that almost all the 'healthy' choices are thrown away by the kids :rolleyes: - yes we staff DO eat with them and try to encourage them to eat something that resembles a 'natural' food but to be frank I do resent doing this we only have 30 minutes to get the dinners served up , eaten and cleared away and much of the time is spent in 'nagging' them to " just try the ratatouille dear " -I'm a teacher - is it really my job to monitor their eating habits ?- and it's made extra hard when they are surrounded by kids whose  lunch boxes are just packed with crisps and chocolate bars.

Some kids only eat a couple of mouthfuls at lunchtimes and then of course are too hungry to concentrate during the afternoon. The plain fact is that good eating habits should be instilled from the word go - if they've never had fresh veg at home they most certainly are not gong to try it out at school !. That's the parents fault folks - and lets be totally honest about this - how many of us reach for a carrot stick at the end of a busy day ?- hands up those who go for the bar of Galaxy and glass of wine !!!.

Yvonne

We started "healthy foods only" at our school about 3 years ago ..... no chips etc or fizzy drinks, choc and sweets .... unbelievably there were sooo many complaints from parents.
As time has progressed it is better but most still opt for their packlunches full of rubbish ....

When my 2nd son went to local grammar I contacted them to ask if they could arrange for vending machines to at least have some healthy(?) options like diet cola or water or natural juices, well it lasted for a couple of weeks then no more, apparently not enough sales! Nothing really to do with the school. Just the purveyors of the machines..

But isn't the answer mainly the the parents' hands - or wallets?   

If, as parents, people stop actually BUYING the crisps/choccy bars/fizzy drinks etc and NOT having them in the house, and also (shock, horror) not giving children money to buy them.....then purveyors of machines/manufacturers will get the message - eventually.

I think we've all been too guilty of offering too much choice - it probably harks back to my generation being "deprived" during wartime/rationing afterwards - our choice was - take it or leave it - and nothing else !   So we overcompensated our children, who are now over-compensating theirs, to an even greater extent!

Its sad when there are more healthy 55+ people around than children :(

Margot

I find it so sad that many children are missing out on healthy food. Not just because it's better for them but because it can be so tasty.
We got back yesterday from a week's holiday in Cornwall. I admit, we ate an awful lot of rubbish.....chips with nearly everything, pasties, burgers and icecream. It was a holiday and those foods were quick and easy.
I've just got back from the allotment.............tonight........fresh spuds, carrots, swede, runner beans and cabbage and a lovely bit of lamb (not from the allotment !!). I already know that the flavour from these will be far better than anything I ate last week and I can't wait !.

I wonder if children would find fresh food more interesting if they helped grow it ?.

I also can't understand why anybody under the age of 16 is given a choice..........at home and school when I was young you ate what you were given or you went hungry.
Many parents today are ruled by their children.

Hi Yvonne,
But! someone has to stop the wheel from turning. If this generation of children are not taught to bake and cook, how can they be expected to do the same with there children from the word go.
It goes back to the Mom's of the sixties having to go out to work to keep the roof above the childrens head.
Coming home tired, giving the children money for the chippy. Then the conservatives stopped the childrens free milk in the schools. Then, replaced by fizzy drink machines. Go back to were it all started.
They are now wanting all moms to put there children in nurserys and go back to work. Schools and Nurserys have the children in there care far longer than the parents do, in many cases. Then when all goes wrong let us all blame the parents.The Children in the past were far better mannered and had family values.
All will be lost in the Nurserys. But, The goverment will blame it all on parents when these children reach there teens.

The change with the mums of the 60s going out to work wasn't so much that they needed to "work to keep the roof above the childrens head." It was the start of women's lib, where being a fulltime mother with time to educate your children in these things was suddenly sneered at and those who did it were made to feel very much second-class citizens. :rolleyes:   Half a century later the damage to society can be seen. :(

Weeeelllll, there are no fizzy drinks at my sons school, nor unhealthy options, he loves his dinners and has jacket spuds, salads, curries - all sorts. They are allowed water or milk, no sweets to be taken into school in lunch boxes and NO parents complain.

Not ALL schools and school lunches are bad :)

Excellent! The message is filtering through! :)

JG when my daughter is in uniform they are not allowed to use mobile phones (I realise there is an emergency situation issue there), eat chips or be in certain areas of our town, they are very strict.  My daughter doesn't actually have town leave for lunch time as we live near to town and she walks to school everyday through town and home through town there is no need for a further visit.  She wasn't happy initially as her friends were allowed town leave but she has a group of friends now who go to the canteen together to eat her healthy packed lunch.  I like and trust the values of her school highly although sometimes I can question them initially if that makes sense.

Tracy was on GMTV and although not slim you definitely wouldn't call her "fat".  At the end of the interview Fiona and Andrew were almost supporting her.  The children only had 30 minutes to have their lunch in during that time it was an almost 20 minute wait before they got served the meal then they had to throw the food down themselves to finish it in time!!

I don't agree with what they were doing but she seemed quite intelligent and not like the headline would make you think her to be like.

I'm sorry - but she is still serving the children fast fat food "which is what the children want"!   What the children WANT is not the question here - its what they NEED.    The question of the timing of the breaks is only just an excuse, IMO!

I WANT a nice car, to win the lottery - but do I NEED to?   No.

I think a bit of the old philiosphy of "I want doesn't get" should come in here.

Yes, I don't suppose she is bringing in fast wholemeal sandwiches or bulgar wheat salads, for example, is she and she could do just as easily.

I saw Tracy on GMTV and I would say she is most defnitely fat and she talked a load of tripe.  How dare she take it upon herself to supply burger, chips or anything else to other people's children.  My daughter doesn't like anything green, the least disliked green veg is broccoli so that is what she got most meals.  Was I wrong as her mother trying to ensure she obtained the necessary nutrients for a healthy diet, to coax her to eat broccoli or should I have bowed to her wishes and consider that she, as an individual, had the right to eat what she wanted every meal (toast, biscuits and ice cream).  Perhaps when she was poorly I shouldn't have given her the prescribed medicine she disliked so much or perhaps I should have let her drink as much cola as she wanted even though after other children's parties she would come home and bounce off the walls until the caffeine had worn off.  Children don't know what's good for them that's why they have parents responsible for them.  Unfortunately some parents, like Tracy, don't know what's good for children either which is why you end up with a population of overweight kids.  It has taken government intervention to change school dinners to a more healthy range to try and combat obesity in children and adults. If Tracy's kids don't like school dinners she has the choice of providing them with a packed lunch and if the school food is as bad as she says it is and she wants to pursue that as an issue for change then she should get other likeminded parents together to discuss this with the school and caterers.  Anarchy is not the way forward and it is most definitely not the example she should be setting children within the school environment.  How dare she undermine those parents who support the school's new rules, parents who in all honesty are probably a darn sight wiser than her. 

My kids didn't like school dinners and so they got packed lunches.  These days you get those brilliant little cool bags so Tracy's argument that the sandwiches get dried up/soggy/squashed (she didn't know which did she?) doesn't wash with me.  Besides if she used a bit of imagination she could perhaps put a tuna pasta dish in a tupperware or salad dressed with nuts and fruit.

I would just like to add that I am not food police when it comes to children.  My children were allowed burger and chips occasionally (occasionally being the key word) along with sweets, crisps and lemonade but all these were in moderation and not before meals and not every day.

Tracey = fat, Lesley = obese, I would have thought Tracey was overweight and Lesley was fat! Good job none of you can see Lesley!

However, having said all that I am fat but not because of junk food, but because of too much food and not enough exercise.  None of my kids or OH are fat.

I think there is a big difference between a bit of weight being carried as an adult and an obese adult or overweight/obese child.

I cannot understand why parents allow their children to get so fat. Can they not see it? Can they not see that they are causing them problems at school and in the future? Do they not WANT to see it? I'd be ashamed to take my neice out - she is huge but her mum tells her its just "puppy fat". Its not - its FAT and thats that! And constantly eating chips and sweets and drinking coke = fat child!

Can I just say Fish and chips are probably the least bad of the villainous 'fast foods'. Moderation surely is key to all this.

I agree. But would you allow your child to eat fish and chips if already dangerously overweight?

Or every day?

The children could eat there fish with salad, a little of everythink is good for you.
Not all children are overweight because of food. Some it can be the steriods they are given for there asthma. A lot! of children have to take these days.
But it isn't true fat moms and dads have fat children. A lot of children these days can't go out and ride there bikes, play and exercise, as it isn't safe anymore, and NO alternative has been made for them. Things are getting worse.
England isn't a child loving country.  

A lot of children won't go out and play these days because they are sat infront of their games consoles and PC's.

Personally I think there should be more PE lessons, and more organised exercise at playtimes at school...

My kids always played out, you don't have to go far or even out of sight of your house if you have a worryguts mum like me.  They had skipping ropes, footballs, tennis sets, badminton sets, bikes and scooters.  They had swimming lessons, my son was just 18 months when he started and could dive beautifully with armbands on :D  It's not expensive to go swimming.  They had gym club which was also very cheap, jujitsu/judo and football (not the girls).  None of these clubs were expensive and only took about an hour - 1.5 hours for each one after school.  There is no excuse for children not taking exercise, however, the education system over the decades has marginalised exercise which is a great shame (2 definitions apply).  The park near me has basket ball nets and they are in use just about every time I go over there as are the football posts now that they are up for the season.

One negative point about the Rotherham school in question is that they have 2 x half hour breaks which leaves the kids only enough time to get their snacks or lunch and not enough for any exercise before or after.

Of course the children could eat their fish with salad......that's the sort of food that the SCHOOL is providing.   The fat mothers are feeding fried fish and fried chips to children other than their own.    And if children are becoming overweight because of the steriod medication they are taking, then it's even more important to ensure that they do eat healthily :rolleyes:

And why do a lot of children have asthma these days?    Because their parents sit and smoke and complain about their kids being sick!

We've all seen the programmes where child is taking puffer whilst mum sits in her armchair, ashtray overflowing on the chair beside her, fag in hand, bemoaning the fact that she can't get out because her kids are sick!

Margot

It goes further back than that Margot... Kids are sickly because they are fed milk designed for baby cows from birth, then they get asthma and excema and skin problems - but thats just "co-incidental" - nothing to do with feeding an entirely inappropriate food to newborns. But we can't say that because its politically incorrect... when I met my consultant for this baby I stipulated that I want to go into labour naturally so that the hormones help with feeding - even though I may end up with another section. She said "I am glad you said that and not me, because we are not allowed to say it, but you are 100% correct!".

They then take babies home withouth even *trying* and congratulate themselves on having a baby that sleeps round the clock - when really its little digestive system is overloaded with such milk in such large quantities that all it can do is sleep!

am ranting now - but you get my point ;)

Move over Carla - I'll help you bang that drum too !!! :D :D

It saddens me that so few hospitals have the resources to help even one new mum,- who may well be miles away from her mum-  etablish a good breast feeding routine :(

Back in the 70s, the NCT promoted "breastfeeding counsellors" - and we were encouraged into health centres/mother and baby clinics.   Now, in this politically-correct state that we are in, where no-one can be judged as "right" or "wrong" - this sort of involvement is not encouraged :(

Margot