When I hear this sort of twaddle, I wonder how my own five children have coped being raised by a mother with such a lax, devil may care attitude. In the eyes of the militant, parenting gestapo I must be scum.
My kids have chocolate, sweets, fizzy drinks, Cheesestrings and Fruit Shoots. They have tomato ketchup on their dinner and they enjoy Wotsits as a snack. I am not ashamed of this at all, because they also love fruit, they eat all their vegetables because they like them and they happily consume wholegrains and pulses as part of their vegetarian diet.
The most important thing I think, is to give your children the tools to be self-regulating as they get older and more independent. Making certain foods or drinks off limits just serves to give them a mystique which makes them more attractive and more sought after. I have seen the parents who forbid their children to touch tomato sauce at home, go completely crazy for the sachets of condiments at Whacky Warehouse birthday parties. While my kids take such things with a pinch of proverbial salt, the children who know they are getting contraband end up over consuming and running up the walls.
My children, aged between 18 months and 22 years, have never had restrictions put upon them. Everything in moderation is my motto (although sometimes excess can be fun!) To date, none of my kids have fillings in their teeth. None of them suffer from any allergies or dietary problems. There is no history of hyperactivity or problems with attention. They are all been above average developmentally whilst growing up. The older ones have all done extremely well at school. They are well rounded, well balanced and great kids.
So how has my Extreme bad parenting affected them? I'm yet to see any problems with my refusal to jump on the 'holier than though' parenting bandwagon. Life is here to be lived. We cannot cosset our kids and protect them from the evils of additives forever. You can bet your bottom dollar that some of those kids who are only allowed pure boiled water now will hit the alcopops as soon as they hit their teens. And they'll probably hit them harder than most, relishing in their newfound freedom of choice and potentially overdoing it like the kids at the Whacky Warehouse parties with the tomato sauce.
There are so many other things in this world to worry about, why on earth expend that much energy on a harmless soft drink, that comes in its own convenient sports topped bottle for easy drinking when out and about! They will remain on my shopping list (as long as they are on BOGOF or half price....My laxness has a price limit you know!)
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| So shoot me!! |
