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This just in: American kids are becoming obese at an alarming rate. Oh wait. We already knew that. But oooh, now we have a whole new set of player pieces to move along the Blame Game board.
This week, The Center for Digital Democracy and American University released study findings that big companies are using online technology to peddle junk food to kids. According to the report, such culprits as McDonald’s, Kellogg’s, Jack in the Box, Coca-Cola and M&Ms are infiltrating cell phones, instant messaging, viral video, online communities and other technology to target messaging to our children.
After reading through the report, I checked out a few sites it mentioned to see how bad it really is. Surprisingly, at no point during my brief stay at the Habbo Hotel , an online community for teens, did my computer drive turn into a Pop Tart dispenser. And a visit to the MySpace page of Jack Box did not result in the large-headed fast food mascot popping out of my monitor to force me to eat an Ultimate Cheeseburger.
Yes, the work these companies are doing to infiltrate our kids’ lives and push products on them is invasive and obnoxious. But enough already.
Listen up, fellow parents: when we point a collective finger, three more are pointing right back at us. When will we stop playing the victim and start taking personal responsibility for our kids’ health and eating habits?
Companies are not physically forcing our kids eat badly. We enable it. God knows it’s hard to say “no” to a kid who just HAS to have something that we know is bad for him or her, and sometimes we just have to give in. SOMETIMES. The rest of the time, we owe it to them to set examples and promote some level of balance and moderation. And it doesn’t have to be all lame and yucky.
There’s a great retail concept in Manhattan called Kidfresh. It’s all about empowering kids to make better choices about what they eat. The store is designed for the young’uns, and sells all natural and organic products that taste great. Grab & Go meals include teddy bear shaped sandwiches and veggie sushi with soy ketchup. The grocery part of the space features shelves of gastronomic Garanimals -- color coded products that allow kids to select items perfect for their age range.
We know how much children love to create things to share with us. Kidfresh capitalizes on this with cooking classes just for them. Odds are if they cook it themselves, they’ll love to eat it. I would love to see the Kidfresh concept go nationwide.
It’s time to stop crying “victim” here. There are plenty of awful things in our lives that we can’t control on our own. Say, skyrocketing gas prices. Or the decaying state of public education in our country. Or the very real threat of the Olsen twins killing the entire Bond franchise. But rather than throw up our hands and act all helpless while enabling our kids’ bad eating habits, let’s take charge. Let’s stop allowing technology to babysit, raise, entertain and influence our children. Let’s turn off the television, shut down the computer and put the cell phone in a drawer and spend time with our children. The kitchen is a great place to start.
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