I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream these days. In fact, the ice-cream van in our area seems to be on overtime, he’s around so much.
Our older generations of parents just love to recall stories from their childhoods, when they were given a penny on a Sunday with which to buy their few sweets for the week and that was it.
And that sounds great – they saw sweets as an elusive treat that they could really look forward to at the end of a week’s worth of good behaviour or no bad notes home from school.
A lot has changed since then (not entirely for the better) in terms of convenient snack foods, family meals which include deserts at the end, and humongous bags of jellies practically jumping into your basket at the checkouts of some supermarkets.
So we, the parents, now have to make those decisions for ourselves: how much sugar will we allow our kids to have?
We want them to eat healthily for the majority of each day, making sure they have enough calcium to build strong bones and contribute to their overall development – vitamins, minerals, water, fruit, veg – the works.
But we also want them to have fun and have a little treat here and there too, right?
Right?
I know there are some parents out there who really, really don’t want their kids to have any sugar at all and while I’m one half ‘Oh but they’re just little kids!’, I’m also the other half thinking ‘Ok cool, they’re your rules, go for it’.
I have a four-and-a-half year old and an almost-two-year-old, and they both have a sweet tooth.
But I have a major need to control how much sugar they get, because it really and truly effects them in all sorts of ways.
Here are my main reasons for not wanting them to have too much sugar:
1. It Goes Straight Through Them
Yes, in THAT way. Their little bodies don’t seem to be able to handle the influx of sugar to their systems and we end up with either runny bums or middle-of-the-night pukes. No fun for anyone.
2. It Turns Them Into Major Asswipes
The high that they get from even the smallest amount of sugar has them swinging from the chandeliers, and then the sugar crash afterwards resembles a scene from any Shakespearean tragedy you can think of. The wailing, oh, the wailing.
3. It Messes With Their Sleep
If Jacob (4) has a particularly sugar-filled day, I am guaranteed at least one night terror by 11pm. That means that he and I have to sit together in his room for up to an hour while he comes out of his trance. Not to mention that I then have the pleasure of dealing with a tired, cranky toddler the next day too. SO not worth it.
4. They Won’t Eat The Good Stuff
Load them up on sugar and you can kiss your organic aubergine lasagne that you made for dinner from scratch goodbye. I know, you grew the aubergines yourself and everything, but your hopped-up-on-sour-jellies kids don’t give a shit about that right now.
5. It Turns Them Into Thieves
Keep sugary treats somewhere in the house and turn your back on your kids for five minutes, I dare you. Their Treats Homing Device will seek them out and your kids will secretly unwrap them behind the couch before shoving them into their tiny little mouths. When you catch them, they’ll totally deny it. They are addicts, people, ADDICTS!
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