So this really bothered me................

[Pennylane]

I was pulling out my soda this morning and my 6 yr old dd informed me that I had better stop drinking soda because it was going to make me fat. We never talk about weight in my house, none of us is overweight and I feel very strongly about not wanting my DC to start worrying about their body image at this early of an age.

I asked her where she heard that and she said her kindergarten teacher told them that soda makes you fat. It just bugged me, maybe more than it should. I just don't feel like that is something you say to a group of 5 and 6 yr olds, YKWIM? I explained to her that eating too much of anything sweet or that has lots of sugar could make you gain weight so that is why we had to have everthing in moderation.

It's really funny though because everytime I go into the classroom her teacher has guess what on her desk.........A soda (diet, but still)

Ann

[elektra]

Yes, that is annoying. It's probably the teacher's own hang up about soda. I think it's so easy to forget that kids take it every word of what adults say. A teacher should really know better though.

[Fairy]

I agree with you. Inappropriate. No problem saying, "pop is not a healthy food. No nutrition. It tastes good, but it has alot of sugar, and diet has alot of unhealthy chemicals. There are healthier choices out there." But to say, "pop makes you fat." If it were me, I'd bring it up to her. I say, look, I apprecitae the content, and I agree with it, but I didn't like the words you used. Just me.

[kedss]

That stinks! Making general statements like that to kids that age have nothing to do with her job. If they were working on nutrition, and the teacher tried to explain why they shouldn't drink too many sodas, that's different, but geez...

yep, a little double standard on her part, even if its "diet"...

[g-mama]

Remember though, that kids often paraphrase and put what someone says into an abbreviated snippet. The teacher may have said all the things the pp have mentioned but in your dd's mind, the condensed version was "soda makes you fat."

My ds tells me things that he heard at school and I just know they couldn't have originally been said in the way he's saying them so I take it with a grain of salt. I can usually even imagine the way it was truly said and see how he would interpret it the way he did.

Just a thought.

[JustMe]

That would bother me a lot too! It is terrible for kids to have to be weight/body image obsessed.

There are a lot of foods that we don't eat/don't eat very often at our house, but I tell dd it is because we want to be healthy. I never mention weight and certainly not the fear of being "fat".

[egoldber]

I would also be a bit doubtful that the teacher said it that way. I know that at Sarah's school, in the Health units they talk about foods that are good for you and not good for you and they talk about soda as an unhealthy food. She was probably paraphrasing or perhaps saying something she heard other children saying.

[almostamom]

I'm really wondering if this was even a message to the class as a whole. I have said something similar to a student of mine who asked why I drank diet coke instead of regular coke. My response was probably along the lines of "because I'm trying not to gain weight."

[HannaAddict]

I don't think that particular comment would bother me. I totally understand not wanting your child, especially a girl, not to focus on weight or worry about it, but soda does not have any redeeming features and does make people fat and our country as a whole has an obesity epidemic going on (even though I understand you all aren't part of it). I don't think a teacher saying that is necessarily inappropriate. But I also agree with other posters that the teacher probably wasn't so blunt but might have talked about weight or not getting fat to explain to curious kids why she has a soda at school and why it is diet. I know we don't drink usually drink soda (though have an occassional craving for a full sugar Coke!) and my almost four year old asks people tons of questions about "why" this or that and I could see him cross examining his teacher about a soda.

Just another perspective.

Kimberly

[katydid1971]

I don't think that particular comment would bother me. I totally understand not wanting your child, especially a girl, not to focus on weight or worry about it, but soda does not have any redeeming features and does make people fat and our country as a whole has an obesity epidemic going on (even though I understand you all aren't part of it). I don't think a teacher saying that is necessarily inappropriate. But I also agree with other posters that the teacher probably wasn't so blunt but might have talked about weight or not getting fat to explain to curious kids why she has a soda at school and why it is diet. I know we don't drink usually drink soda (though have an occassional craving for a full sugar Coke!) and my almost four year old asks people tons of questions about "why" this or that and I could see him cross examining his teacher about a soda.

Just another perspective.

Kimberly

I have to agree, there is a lot of pressure on schools/teachers to teach better nutrition it could have been as simple as "What are good choices to make? Milk, water What are not so good choices to make? Pop" By the way, the way we drink sode in our culture makes us FAT. You might not have a problem with this but there are children in that class that will and hearing now that drinking pop is unhealthy, to me, is just like hearing that smoking is bad for you. You wouldn't have a problem with that would you? Last year the average age a person lives went down for the first time since the 1860's and its because we are an obese nation.

[Pennylane]

I have to agree, there is a lot of pressure on schools/teachers to teach better nutrition it could have been as simple as "What are good choices to make? Milk, water What are not so good choices to make? Pop" By the way, the way we drink sode in our culture makes us FAT. You might not have a problem with this but there are children in that class that will and hearing now that drinking pop is unhealthy, to me, is just like hearing that smoking is bad for you. You wouldn't have a problem with that would you? Last year the average age a person lives went down for the first time since the 1860's and its because we are an obese nation.


No I don't have a problem with the message she was probably trying to send, I just think she could say it in a better way. I also think if she is trying to show how to make good choices she should not be drinking soda in the classroom.

We don't talk about fat/skinny at our house and like I said before I don't want my 6 yr old very healthy dd to start worrying about things like that yet.

Ann