After-School Snack
Two questions: 1) What is with some parents's insistance on stuffing their children with crap food at every available opportunity? 2) Why do they feel that they must feed my child crap food at the same time?
I pick up the Bambina at around 15h30 every weekday from her nido (that's Italian for daycare, nursury, creche, pick a term). She often likes to stick around in the courtyard of the school afterwards and run around with her friends. Now, the children are given an afternoon merenda (snack) in the nido at 15h00, which generally consists of yogurt or milk and a biscotto. There is therefore no reason to feed the children once again while they they are playing in the courtyard before going home. It seems that this fact does not stop many adults, though.
Two days ago, I pick up the Bambina at the nido at 15h30 as usual and I let her run around in the courtyard for an hour or so before we head home. At one point, the Bambina is playing with her best girlfriend, Barbara. Barbara's nanny is watching the two of them and I am watching from a little further away. Suddenly, I see that the Bambina is sucking on something. I walk up to her and ask her to open her mouth and show me what it is. It is a candy. A rock-hard sugary candy which, apart from being a choking hazard for children under three years' of age, serves no purpose other than to rot a child's teeth.
"Who gave this to you?" I ask. The Bambina pointed to the guilty party, Barbara's nanny.
"Spit it out, please." and she spits it out in my hand and starts to cry. "Please do not give her candy", I tell the nanny.
The next day, the same time, the Bambina is running around in the courtyard of her nido with three older girls. And sure enough, a nanny in charge of one of the girls pulls out a package of Tuc crackers and offers it to her charge.
"Crackers are okay", I hear you saying. Not true. Most brands are nothing more than processed junk food. Read the ingredients! If you take a look at the ingredients on a package of Tuc crackers, the first ingredient is white flour, the second ingredient is vegetable oil and the third ingredient is glucose syrop.
The nanny then proceeds to offer the Tuc crackers to the other two girls. She is then at least polite enough turn to me and ask if the Bambina may have a cracker, to which I answer, "No". (The Bambina, incidentally, does not protest at all).
"E perche non?", she asks me.
Er, because I am her parent and that is my wish? Can we leave it at that?
"Because she has already had a snack and I prefer that she wait until supper before eating," I respond.
"Let her have just one" she says, and then hands the Bambina a cracker!! Against my explicit NO! I am so flabbergasted, I just turn and walk away. I should protest but the Italian is not forthcoming and I do not have the energy. I am boiling inside, though.
Five minutes later, I see the Bambina on the other side of the courtyard, and she is eating a chocolate wafer. Noone has asked me. The failure to so much as ask me if the Bambina could eat a certain food REALLY infuriates me. What if the Bambina were diabetic? Or on a special diet prescribed by the doctor? I take it away, and tell yet another nanny that the Bambina has eaten already and that I prefer that she not eat again before suppertime.
The thing that amazes me is that these children are eating these snacks every single day in the courtyard. It is an expectation for them. They are all still thin. But if you look at the children in the school who are just a few years older, age 6 and up, you notice that in a class of sixteen kids, seven are overweight or even obese. When you go to the beach in the summer, it is staggering to see the number of obese children running around. You would think that you were in the United States, not Italy.
I pick up the Bambina at around 15h30 every weekday from her nido (that's Italian for daycare, nursury, creche, pick a term). She often likes to stick around in the courtyard of the school afterwards and run around with her friends. Now, the children are given an afternoon merenda (snack) in the nido at 15h00, which generally consists of yogurt or milk and a biscotto. There is therefore no reason to feed the children once again while they they are playing in the courtyard before going home. It seems that this fact does not stop many adults, though.
Two days ago, I pick up the Bambina at the nido at 15h30 as usual and I let her run around in the courtyard for an hour or so before we head home. At one point, the Bambina is playing with her best girlfriend, Barbara. Barbara's nanny is watching the two of them and I am watching from a little further away. Suddenly, I see that the Bambina is sucking on something. I walk up to her and ask her to open her mouth and show me what it is. It is a candy. A rock-hard sugary candy which, apart from being a choking hazard for children under three years' of age, serves no purpose other than to rot a child's teeth.
"Who gave this to you?" I ask. The Bambina pointed to the guilty party, Barbara's nanny.
"Spit it out, please." and she spits it out in my hand and starts to cry. "Please do not give her candy", I tell the nanny.
The next day, the same time, the Bambina is running around in the courtyard of her nido with three older girls. And sure enough, a nanny in charge of one of the girls pulls out a package of Tuc crackers and offers it to her charge.
"Crackers are okay", I hear you saying. Not true. Most brands are nothing more than processed junk food. Read the ingredients! If you take a look at the ingredients on a package of Tuc crackers, the first ingredient is white flour, the second ingredient is vegetable oil and the third ingredient is glucose syrop.
The nanny then proceeds to offer the Tuc crackers to the other two girls. She is then at least polite enough turn to me and ask if the Bambina may have a cracker, to which I answer, "No". (The Bambina, incidentally, does not protest at all).
"E perche non?", she asks me.
Er, because I am her parent and that is my wish? Can we leave it at that?
"Because she has already had a snack and I prefer that she wait until supper before eating," I respond.
"Let her have just one" she says, and then hands the Bambina a cracker!! Against my explicit NO! I am so flabbergasted, I just turn and walk away. I should protest but the Italian is not forthcoming and I do not have the energy. I am boiling inside, though.
Five minutes later, I see the Bambina on the other side of the courtyard, and she is eating a chocolate wafer. Noone has asked me. The failure to so much as ask me if the Bambina could eat a certain food REALLY infuriates me. What if the Bambina were diabetic? Or on a special diet prescribed by the doctor? I take it away, and tell yet another nanny that the Bambina has eaten already and that I prefer that she not eat again before suppertime.
The thing that amazes me is that these children are eating these snacks every single day in the courtyard. It is an expectation for them. They are all still thin. But if you look at the children in the school who are just a few years older, age 6 and up, you notice that in a class of sixteen kids, seven are overweight or even obese. When you go to the beach in the summer, it is staggering to see the number of obese children running around. You would think that you were in the United States, not Italy.
2 comments:
That would drive me crazy !!!
How frustratng it is not to be speak a language well enough to argue in these cases !!! I really see how you must have felt !
You really belong in the United States.
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