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First You Punch Your Kid in the Face

And then you do a blog tour about how to discipline a child with love and laughter. No? This doesn’t work?

Or first you’re Con Agra, and you defile America’s Food, lobby to get masses of cornĀ derivativesĀ into everything, rename high fructose corn syrup, donate some left over bags of Slim Jims to shelters, and then ask the mommy bloggers to support you.

WHAT THE FUCK ARE WE DOING? Ladies, your children are being poisoned, they are fat, they have diabetes, and their expected lifespan is shorter than ours. Don’t punch your kid in the face and then give parenting advice.

17 thoughts on “First You Punch Your Kid in the Face”

  1. I gotta say, I agree with you on this Jessica – it’s gone way too far what we as bloggers are willing to promote with too little research. And to what end? Why? What are these bloggers REALLY getting out of it?

  2. I didn’t even know they -had- been reaching out to mommy-bloggers! Wow! I’m not nutrition-mommy-of-the-year but I’ll be sure to steer clear of -that- PR campaign. Eeesh.

  3. Oy. Lisa, it’s not just about being thin. It’s about health and what we teach our kids is acceptable and not at an early age.

    And no, I wasn’t a drill sergeant about it when I was raising kids — we had birthday cake and holiday pies — but I didn’t let them drink soda until they were ten and their first piece of candy didn’t happen until kindergarten. The funny thing is that now neither of them are avid soda or candy fans. They like their fruits and vegetables and lean meats because that’s what they grew up on.

    I don’t espouse that every parent be as strict as I was, but it’s so disheartening to me to see kids in stores begging for Corn Pops and Hostess products. Somewhere along the way, between convenience and marketing, the worst kind of food in the world became a reward.

    1. …On the other hand… I can count on 1 hand the number of times my mother let us have sodas before I turned 15. We did not have drive through until I hit double digits. Hell, we didn’t even eat MEAT for 3 years! Our family was poor, but my mother cared about our nutrition. My first hotdog was when I was 5. The day I got my license & started driving, I went NUTS for all the things my mother never let me have. I had a job, I had money, the means to get places…and I washed that Taco Bell down with the biggest Dr. Pepper I could!!

      I learned my lesson…but about 150 pounds too late. (That’s how much weight I should lose if I am to be an “ideal” weight for my height.)

      We begged for Corn Pops & Hostess…we never got them…but we still begged for them. We ate plain cheerios & oatmeal. My mom made treats from a book that used carob & brown rice syrup instead of chocolate & sugar. Once, my mom put a Hershey’s kiss in our oatmeal for a treat. Yet…I didn’t take her REASONS for eating this way with me as I grew. At least…not until I had my own kids. I probably indulge my kids a little too much if we’re going by my mom’s standards. But I don’t want my kids to be so starved for crap that they go nuts for it the moment they’re away from me. I want them to prefer my homemade haystacks to twinkies…and I want them to know why I prefer them FOR them.

  4. I am with Jane on this. My son is 5 and he never drinks soda. Also didn’t have candy until he started school, and eats tons of fruits, vegetables, and healthy food because that’s what we gave him. I really hate kids parties because people bring such garbage for the kids to eat, and loads of it.

    If we feed them good food when they’re small, that’s what they’ll learn to like. My son thinks carrots are candy. How do we get this kind of eating and snacking deployed into the public schools, is my big question.

    Great post, Jessica.

  5. I’ll be up front, I am a farmer. My family raises cattle, but I do know something about corn. I think it is absurd that you attacking ConAgra and those corn farmers that want to share their story. I grew up with cookies and treats in the cookie jar on our counter and ate my fair share of candy treats. However, my mom also knew when to say no, we got exercise, and a balanced diet with lots of fruits in vegetables was included. I think blaming others for our health problems is the easy way out. It is time parents stepped up and parented again. They need to set healthy examples for their children and put limits.

    1. I love that you’re a farmer. I was reading your blog earlier today and I’m totally into your passion.

      I LOVE steak, but I don’t love a Slim Jim. I love an ear of corn but I don’t love HFCS. I think food is wonderful, and I think that every time a machine touches it we lose a little. The farmers lose too.

      1. @GreenInOC I don’t want to hijack Jessica’s post here, so if I don’t answer your question or anyone else’s fully please visit my blog or email me crystal.cattle @ gmail.com

        It depends on the time of the year. Because we live in a colder climate we have to bring our momma cows home from pasture usually in October or November. We will then start to feed hay (dried grass). Our cows will calve in the months of Jan., Feb, and March. Once the cows have calved we will begin to fed some sort of grain. It is usually oats with a little bit of barley or corn added for energy. This helps the cows maintain their body condition as they are providing milk for their calves. As soon as their is enough grass in the pasture the cows with their calves will go back out onto green grass, and will stay their until the fall. In August or September the calves are weaned.

        Since our cattle are purebred and are used for seedstock the heifers (females) will be put back in our herd and the bull calves (males) will become breeding bulls. Anything that isn’t of high enough quality will be sold at market. This is when the feeding process begins to turn these animals into beef. Through the fall, winter and into the spring they will be fed a roughage and grain diet to finish them before harvest. I hope this helps.

  6. So very well said. I don’t think anyone is saying one specific company is making our kids fat. Obviously lifestyle and exercise, or lack thereof, plays a huge role. But poisoning our bodies with unnatural, processed ingredients is doing its fair share of damage. And no, I don’t buy for one second the HFCS is natural just because it comes from corn. If people actually read up or watched a video on how they transform corn to HFCS maybe then they would understand that this is a chemical and one that needs to stay out of our bodies. I am not perfect, I try to limit processed foods as much as possible, but I’d be lying if I said we have none in our house. But I make sure that the ones I do end up buying are free of HFCS and other artificial ingredients. Our kids should be eating whole foods, not chemically laden junk.

  7. Sadly, many mom bloggers fell for that “it’s the same as sugar” crap the industry pushed on them, with their sponsored experts. Loading your kids up on sugar is of course bad, as well, but HFCs are not actually nutritionally equivalent to sugar, it is a fallacy.

  8. You know I’m far from educated on this topic and probably should be. Of course I feed my kids healthy foods and I feed them junk food. My kids don’t eat a lot of candy and drink soda only because it’s a luxury and not one easily afforded. We have kids in and out of our house (friends and the such) and I can’t afford to buy sodas and candy for half the neighborhood so my kids don’t get it. They do often get it as a treat and it is a rule in my house to be active.

    While I missed the uproar and PR campaign of this one…wouldn’t it be a wise idea to start an educational PR movement with mom bloggers about what is healthy etc instead of anything else. I’m no expert on anything but I just think a little education and a lot of getting people to talk can go a long way.

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