I think free nutrition classes should be available for all parents, what do you think?

[disneyrose]

As a child, my mother did license daycare pretty much my whole life.  As a teen I took 1st Aid, CPR and Nutrition classes, several of them.   As an adult I had no idea some parents had no idea how to feed their kids.  When I met my no DH, his DS was 10 and almost 75 pounds overweight, it wasn't until we got married and I spent time with him did I realize this kid was being over fed.  He was 11 and 100 pounds overweight, his mother would let him eat 1 dozen dunkin donuts for breakfast, 1 1/2 adult meals at BK, McDonald's or Jack in the Box starting at age 8!  He could have 1/2 gallon of ice cream at 10pm, it was crazy.  So I thought my husband what proper portions should be and how unhealthy it is to eat after 8pm.  We tried our hardest to educate DS but he called us liars, even at one point told us only McDonald's was unhealthy, Jack in the Box was very healthy.  I did buy the Eat This, Not That books when DS was 15, he read them and finally believed us that his mother was feeding him unhealthy food and unhealthy portions, btw she never cooked at home they ate fast food every night, pretty much still do, she is about 150 pounds overweight.

DH and I are not perfect when it comes to our weight, but we only weigh maybe 5 - 7 pounds more then we should, sad to say that we don't excersise LOL but we do eat healthy.  Our DS is not overweight at all either, he get plunty of excersice running around the house, he just turned 3, so I am sure you know what I mean LOL.  I cook 97% of the time at home, eating out is just not our thing.

I think that if all parents took nutrition classes it would help the overweight kids problem in the US, IDK what do you think?

[toomanypoodles]

 Why do the classes need to be free?  Who's going to pay for it?  The over-burdoned taxpayer?

I think these skills can be offered yes, but for a fee.  If women want to know how to feed their family right and care enough about them to learn, they can pay to go to school and learn that, sure.  Good idea. 

But as yet another government paid handout, bad idea. 

[psuedonym]

There's too much available for free on the internet to justify this, IMO. The only thing stopping people is the interest and desire.

[SlightlyPerfect]

Who would fund it?

[toomanypoodles]

 

Quoting psuedonym:

There's too much available for free on the internet to justify this, IMO. The only thing stopping people is the interest and desire.

 Yup, and now that one of the entitlements for the poor is their free Internet, there's no excuse, is there?

Give up some of their gaming time and look into feeding their kids properly.  :)

[toomanypoodles]

 

Quoting SlightlyPerfect:

Who would fund it?

 Who else?  ME!

[heidimoose134]

Eh. Nutrition is common sense in my opinion. Apples are good, chips are bad. It's not rocket science. 

I do believe they should include nutrition within parenting classes for those who do take them (assuming they don't already.. I've never taken a parenting class so I wouldn't know). 

[SlightlyPerfect]

Yes. Just about anyone can access the internet.

Food and money are very similar in nature in that how we manage both are physical representations of our highest values.

I had a friend back in 2006 who wanted to create a website, similar to mint.com, that would help people with budgets and debt. He wanted to call it "Crunch the Numbers." I told him it wouldn't work. All one needs to create a budget is a pen and paper, a calculator, and a meeting with a financial adviser to learn ways to pay off whatever debt they had (depending on how it was comprised and how much was owed). Set up email alerts for account balances, etc. Maybe take a class in investing if they wanted to learn about different markets.

It's not like an aggregator is necessary to teach people how to manage money. And even if we did need that, there's plenty of free content out there on the internet. You won't profit off of "Crunch the Numbers."

If people want to learn, they will. If they don't, they won't. The internet makes so much (more than porn and social-networking) accessible.

Quoting psuedonym:

There's too much available for free on the internet to justify this, IMO. The only thing stopping people is the interest and desire.

[SlightlyPerfect]

I was thinking this guy, but he looks busy.

Quoting toomanypoodles:

Quoting SlightlyPerfect:

Who would fund it?

 Who else?  ME!

[TCgirlatheart]

This is true and nutrition has always been taught as part of health class. Or at least it was in my high school 15 some odd years ago.

Quoting psuedonym:

There's too much available for free on the internet to justify this, IMO. The only thing stopping people is the interest and desire.

[fairymaid23]

Our local wic office offers free nutritional cooking classes n u earn free books that teach kids how n y to choose good foods. If u can u pay if u cant u dont plus u get to eat the food u make. U can bring ur kids to learn to cook with u, its fun.