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Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Ice Cream or Nothing?

At work, we sell ice cream and candy. It's a tourist attraction must have. More times than I can count I've seen a parent, usually obese, come dragging their child over and tell their kid that he or she can have ice cream. The child sees the candy and wants that. The parent tells the kid, "No, I will get you ice cream. Don't you want ice cream?" The child says he or she doesn't want ice cream, wants candy. The parent then gives them the ultimatum of ice cream or nothing. The child insists he or she doesn't want ice cream. The furious parent drags the kid away.

This aggravates me because the parent did not drag their kid over to buy them ice cream. They use their child. They know their child would not eat all of the ice cream and the rest would be the parent's to enjoy. Moms are especially bad about this. She can't just by one for herself. She'll seem like a cow, but it's okay when the kid hands over the barely eaten ice cream to go play. That's why they walk away furious. They didn't get what they wanted.

Why do I think this? Candy contains less calories, less sugar, no fat, and costs less than the ice cream. It makes sense if you want to treat your child to do so with something they want, especially when what they want is a better alternative health and money wise. Even today, a child chose a sucker over ice cream and the mom surprised me by saying, "Well, that's better for you anyway." I was happy to hear that. The other parents are teaching their children to make poor food choices. "Get what's most fattening and full of sugar and will make you obese like me or else you don't get a treat!"

And we wonder why our kids are getting fatter so early in life.

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