The Food Storm
Children have an abundance of calories at their fingertips. Some are “junk,” and some are “nutritious.” But more nutrients don’t make them healthier, and they certainly don’t make them thinner. Because our brains need to prepare for an uncertain future, they gives us lots urges and cues to eat, especially sweet and creamy foods. Little seedlings need rain to become mature plants, but too much of good thing—a deluge of rain—results in water-logged plants. Children need adequate calories to become healthy adults, but too much of good thing—a deluge of food—results in obese kids.
The Education Whirlpool
Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street? Sure, I can. WALK! Wake up, people. Children are learning machines. Millions of years of evolution have prepared them to learn from the environment—the world around them, parents, other children, nature, and play. When did we start to believe that you can extract the “nutrients” from normal creative play and feed it to children around the clock with the end result that they will become geniuses? They are already geniuses! If you think about it, learning how to go from the complete helplessness of a newborn to leaping exuberance of a four-year-old is miraculous! From age two to six, children learn 10 new words everyday just by being around other people. When we try to keep children still so they can learn more, they stagnate.
The Supermom Ship
Personally, I think moms are super, but they are not endlessly super. They are human. Women do seem to be able to juggle several tasks simultaneously without dropping the ball. But, as any decent juggler knows, once she has reached her limit, she doesn’t drop just one ball. All of the balls come crashing down. Moms are trying to stretch themselves beyond their capacity, to do everything at once. To do so, they increasing rely on help from others and conveniences, like prepared food.
In the perfect storm, a whole lot of wind and water can rapidly accelerate a tropical storm into a category four hurricane. In a hurricane, the problem isn’t really the storm, itself; it’s the damage it can cause. Once the hurricane arrives, we need to stop worrying about what caused it and start dealing with the situation at hand. The perfect storm of overweight children has arrived. It is a clear and present danger that isn’t going away. The damage is already apparent. The question is how are we going to deal with the situation?
