I was waiting for it. It was just a matter of time. The notice finally came home with my son last week.

Dear Parents, it read, due to the large number of birthday parties in which foods like cupcakes and donuts are brought to class, combined with the food allergies some of the children have, we are now forbidding junk food at the school.  We are just trying to keep your kids healthy, because healthy kids make better learners, blabbity blabbity blaaah.

Even though I have noticed not a smidgen of a weight problem at our school, (I think the allergy reference is a red herring, because they know it would be beyond politically incorrect for parents to call the school and say, “Screw the kids with food allergies, my son deserves a cupcake on his birthday!”) they’ve gone and done it.

They have now started being the food police.

I’m annoyed.

The area in which I live is filled rather to the brim with trim, wealthy, older moms who forbid their children to drink anything but water at lunch.  Or to have anything unhealthier than goldfish. I’m not kidding, a friend of mine is exactly like that.  She could not even bring herself to allow her son to have any junk food at his birthday party, and served a bunch of eight year olds grapes and tomato and mozzarella salad.  At a birthday party.  Now, I am certainly not one who advocates eating junk food on a daily basis, but if you can’t let go a little at a birthday party, there might be some issues that go beyond “committed to a healthy lifestyle.”  This is the same child, who, when not with his mother, takes every opportunity he gets to ingest as much sugar as possible.  Meanwhile, my son, who is definitely allowed leeway in the junk food area, will choose the healthier option about 80% of the time. 

So even though I’m not a libertarian at heart, I’m chafing at the rules the school has decided to impose.

And just to spite them, I’m packing Halloween candy in my son’s lunch every day this week.  And maybe the next.

Disgruntled snort sound here.

I’m going to direct your attention over there. 

You know, a diatribe against this woman is just too easy, isn’t it?  I mean, there is nothing about what she is doing to her daughter that is healthy or redeeming in any way.

Mothers are guilty of passing on body issues even without really realizing what they are doing. 

This woman has just thrown all pretense out the door and said, screw it, I’m fat and I don’t want my kid to be fat.

But as Jezebel points out, doesn’t that speak just as much to society’s treatment of fat people that she would go to such extreme measures?

Discuss.

Although, Mother of the Year? Yeah, so not her.

I’m going to call it right here.

Any parent who buys their child a $15,000 gingerbread house (that will essentially start to decompose in a matter of days) as a Christmas present needs to turn in their parenting license ASAP.

Don’t things like this make you wish there were such things as parenting licenses?

Is it just me or did this weekend completely zip by? As my daughter is getting older and thus napping less, it seems my spare time has pretty much shrunk to nothing.

Last week I wanted to know how you shop, and 60% of you like to see the things you buy in person. I can totally relate to that, although I will admit that it seems stores are carrying less and less inventory and I am pretty much being forced to shop online for many things. Even though I would buy them in person if I could. Just the other day I was at Nordstrom’s, looking for Philosophy’s Save Me, and they didn’t have it. They had everything else but that. Of course, because that is what I wanted and that is the story of my life.

A couple of weeks ago I had a cupcake from this place, and I was completely underwhelmed. Which got me to thinking…

In my never-ending quest to expand my son’s dietary repoirtoire, I took him to the grocery store.  He still seems to eat the same ten or so things, and I’m trying to get his portfolio a bit more diversified.

We trekked through the entire store, with no luck.  I would suggest items, only to have them rejected.

Fine.  I know better than to try to force someone to eat something.

Finally we reached the freezer aisle, and again, nothing caught his eye.  Until, that is, we reached the very last case.

At the bottom of it, rather fittingly, were these:

“Ooooh, Mom!” he said excitedly, “I want to try those!”

Now, I am well aware that there is no anatomical part of a chicken lableled “nugget” but for some strange reason, my mind rebelled against this particular incarnation of pressed, formed chicken meat.

To have chicken rings in my freezer would feel oh-so-very-wrong.

I stand by my decision to ban them from our house completely.

Wow, 67% of you actually eat your leftovers before they go bad. You have my admiration. But then again, you also don’t live with my husband, who somehow always manages to push the leftovers way into the back of the shelves where I forget about them until it’s too late. 21% of you share my pain in this regard. And a surprisingly large segment, 10%, doesn’t do leftovers at all. Does that mean you eat everything you order? Or someone else eats them for you?

Today it seems that pretty much the whole country is hot. Did you know that 2010 is the hottest year ever recorded?

Gets me in the mood for a drinky-poo.

Eighty-three percent of you agreed with me that siblings should pretty much have their own friends, regardless of the age difference between the siblings. I personally find it odd that any parent would expect someone to be friends with siblings. What makes someone like a person is unique, and just because they have a brother or sister close in age does not automatically make everyone friends. But, I also have it easy with a seven year age difference, which pretty much guarantees that neither of my children will have a whole lot of overlap in friends, if any.

Today’s question comes to you courtesy of the doggie bag that is still sitting in my refrigerator from last week.

Because now I’m turning into a VJ, too.

Awww yeaaahh, some early eighties rock! Almost worth watching for the lead singer’s outfit alone.

Why I lurve Kelley.

Did this mom shoplift from Whole Foods, or was she just forgetful?

Home births.  Not all that safe for babies?

Dr. Phil’s house is way nicer than yours.  Or mine, for that matter…

Dude.  I can totally see the rabbit.

Passive-aggressive grandmas.  I can relate.

Family together time- geocaching!