So now, it’s only store-bought cupcakes for us — or it was, until the school nixed those, too, as part of it’s healthy eating campaign. Well: it’s OK to bring cupcakes as long as you bring something else that’s “healthy”. I usually go with grapes (Nature’s jellybeans! — but they are fruit, so they must be healthy!), and everyone’s happy.

It’s not the sugar that discombobulates the kid, it’s the crash after all the sugar has been processed and they still have a boatload of insulin circulating in their systems. Very unpleasant. In a classroom setting, anything outside of routine can be disruptive, obviously. Building in transition activities (stand and stretch, the one-minute nap, etc) can help a class stay on track while moving from one task or activity to another.

Seriously. When I was a kid, we didn’t have birthday parties at school. We celebrated at home with the family and a few friends. Birthday parties did not dominate weekends and break the bank. (Yes, my friends with kids whine about chauffeuring their kids all over town every weekend to parties and about the expense of buying gifts. Their choice, I say. Just say no to excessive birthday parties.)

I have a friend who had to take the treats to school for her daughter’s birthday at the end of April. “But your daughter’s birthday is in June,” I said.

My friend told me that the school celebrates the summer birthdays during the school year so no one is left out.

“But it’s not her birthday!” I kept saying.

Wouldn’t a simpler, more logical solution be that birthdays just don’t get celebrated at school?

Ana- We all are, I think.

Michelle- Can we trade sons?

Jennifer- The schools are out of control in what they have to teach kids. Most of it should be done and enforced at home, but it isn’t. Because of the few, the majority have to suffer, which is always the way it is.

My point is that, yes, my daughter chose Chocolate Chip Muffins. But if she had wanted cupcakes or grapes and cheese cubes I would have sent that in, too. So much pressure is put on schools in general – and teachers in particular – to “make up” for what sometimes isn’t being done in the home. That’s why the neighboring school district just spent $300,000 on a “Core Value” curriculm. (Forget for a moment that the school district started the school at the beginning of August with an elementary school lacking air conditioning. I live in south Georgia, and the average temp was 95 degrees, with the heat index around 115. But I digress.)

So the schools have to teach values like honesty and respect because some students aren’t taught that at home. The schools also have to ban cupcakes because some students aren’t ever taught that fresh fruits and veggies are better for you than chips and cookies.

The schools go overboard trying to be everything to everybody, when they just need to BACK OFF and remember that there are *MANY* parents in this world who are loving and caring and trying to do the right thing.

I agree that moderation is the key, but I am glad that teachers have commented on this post because honestly, I never thought of the hyper part of the equation.