No CUPCAKES!!!
 

yup, the town of mansfield MA has issued a decree - henceforward there will be no cupcakes allowed for birthday celebrations in school! you see, kids are fat in america because @ 25 times a yr they have cupcakes. Teachers are also limited to 2 food celebrations over the course of the year. This message was sent by the school nurses and said it was a reccomendation from the Mansfield Health Advisory Board.
I'd love the get a BMI for each member of the advisory board. Did they look at school lunch menu with chicken fingers, tostitos and cheese, pizza and other greasy fried crap? Of course not!
I would like to thank the liberals of this country once again for limiting my rights.
As you were growing up, did any of you think you would live in a country where your kids could not bring in cupcakes to celebrate their birthdays?

What's next, are they gonna cancel recess because a kid could fall down and get hurt?

I swear that these administrators have nothing better to do than think of ways to protect kids from themselves.

MORE FROZEN PROCESSED CRAP

mmmmmmmmmmmm GOOD

we put rubberized fill in the play area at St. Mary's so the kids would bounce if they fell.
That lasted about a year once staff and parents got tired of getting rubber out of the kids shoes.

I just sent the following to the Buzz opinion page and will send a copy to both schools and nurses

Last Friday, both my children who attend Mansfield Public Schools, brought home a letter notifying us that starting next year, children will no longer be allowed to bring in cupcakes or cake for birthday celebrations. It seems the war on childhood obesity has hit home. In typical politically correct fashion, instead of targeting the children that need it, we have to punish them all. The memory of childhood cupcakes is important to me. In my case, its wasn’t just sharing a treat with my classmates it was a patriotic statement. I was born on June 14, the seldom celebrated holiday of Flag Day. Each year, my mom would bake cupcakes for my class and adorn each cupcake with a paper American Flag. Now, some 35 yrs later, my children, who are growing up less than 40 miles from where the American Revolution was born and the Abolitionist movement started, will not have the right to bear cupcakes.

This decree came from a recommendation from Mansfield Health Advisory Board and the school nurses. I am wondering if the Board performed a detailed nutritional analysis of the benefits of a daily dose of chicken fingers, Tostitos and cheese, fun fish sticks, meatball subs (on white bread) and pizza, compared to the nutritional value of 20-30 cupcakes per year? Which contributes more to fat kids- random cupcakes or the school lunch menu? I'm no health expert, but I think I can make a pretty good guess.

What that the school nurses and the board don’t have the guts to tell you is that if your kid is overweight, its your fault. Not the fault of a few monthly cupcakes to celebrate their classmates birthday. Limit the TV, limit the snacks, get outside and walk, run, bike - its all common sense. But in America we are no longer accountable for our actions, we need faceless boards to step in and tell us what's best for our kids. We need to place the blame on things other than ourselves. How did we ever survive without them?
I never thought I would live in a town where my kids cant share some junk food with their classmates. Where the school regulates the food kids can share. Lets stop this nonsense, let kids bring in some cake or cupcakes and instead spend our energy on revamping the school lunch menu and get our rear ends off the couch and outside playing with our children. It will do you AND your kids some good.

Reads like Jack Edwards speech after the Montreal series.
Bon Apetit

What if it was an allergy thing...

My wife's niece is allergic to tree-nuts, which limits a lot of processed (junk) food...

not saying I agree, she's 8 and is very self aware not to eat anything risky, and other kids with allergies should be aware as well.

Again, mainly playing devils advocate, not saying I agree...

Not that I'm condoning it....but when I was growing up we NEVER got to bring cupcakes into school or celebrated our birthdays...it was just another day of class...that was all.

we got all the allergy notices before. This letter said its related to raising kids healthy and starting good habits at an early age.

see! perfect example! I see you posting in the portly angler threads and you didnt even have cupcakes as a kid!

By the way...great letter. :kewl:

Right to bear cupcakes....love it :hihi:

Hey I know I'm fat because its my fault....nobody else's....except maybe my Grandfather's gene's...he was a mountain of a man

that's a SICK law

i'd break it every day and smuggle in cupcakes
i would be the cupcake terrorist .....extreme

there would be cupcake tattoos
cup cake bumper stickers,decals
holographic cupcakes and oh so much more....

muooo ha ha ha

whose got cupcakes

I'd like a double chocolate

mmmmmmmm

Let's see.....
The schools have regulated/banned recess, for those that still have it, you can't run, play tag or any other PHYSICAL ACTIVITY!
So they kids can't burn any calories, yet the school sees itself "fit" to serve what "they" consider a healthy, nutritious lunch (provided they aren't serving WWII K-rations or expired-date food) and the school now wants to dictate that because some kids may be overweight (due to the school as much as the parents) they want to further control what your kids can do at school.

Maybe if these idiots were spending as much time, money and energy on TEACHING instead of wasting it on dietary concerns they help create, maybe just maybe the kids would be better suited to face the daily challeges of EDUCATION and not counting calories!!!

It's mental giants like these that make me wonder what am I paying taxes for in the first place. I think every school board in the country should lead by example. Before they institute ANY mandate, change any school rule, or create any assinine food law they should have to apply it to themselves FIRST.
What's good for the goose is good for the gander!

:uhuh::uhuh::uhuh::uhuh:

You didn't know? The school knows what's best for your child better than you do. Kids don't get fat because their parents are incompetent. They get fat because the government didn't appropriately guide parents on what is best for the kids.

It takes a village to raise a child, you know.

Im trying, it gets harder every day. After I went on a 20 minute tirade at home mu wifes says - "does this mean we're moving out of mansfield?"

This morning, I'm having coffee and talking to my daughter. She is telling me that at recess some kids were really into making their own Pokemon cards at recess. I was reminiscing that when I was in third grade, we were really into making paper airplanes and flying them at recess. Without missing a beat she says "Paper airplanes are banned at our school" I couldnt even react.....

We didn't have cupcakes growing up.

We were so poor, my mother would bake 2 potatoes, we would put them in our pockets to keep our hands warm (since we didn't have mittens and only 2 pairs of socks) and then we would eat the potatoes for lunch.

So isnt it very liberal of me to want to take my hard earned money and time, buy and bake cupcakes so my well off kids can share with the poor folks like you?
I would MA liberals would want me to bake twice as many as other kids.

You've got to be kidding. Well next year we're at Xvarian, I think they let the kids have cupcakes and fly paper airplanes. too funny and to sad.
But I do have to buy a mac. :confused:

Jimmy, I'm not kidding when I suggest the following. When a seat on the school committee becomes available, you should run. You have 2 children who will be in the school system for a lot of years and will be affected by decisions that are made. It sounds like they need a voice of reason, which you could provide.

Makes me ashamed to live here Jim. I work in Cambridge, I might as well move there now. BTW I'm eating Cheez-its as I read this thread.

I don't recall ever having food parties in school. Parties should be off school grounds and school is for learning.
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Maybe you want them to die young b/f they reach voting age from a heart attack.:uhuh:

My best friend is a teacher at Mansfield and I mentioned that there is little chance that I'll put my kids into a public schools system. He gets pissed off and tells me it's an attack on his job. I tell him that it's my choice based on a corrupt system that isn't designed to benefit the students the most. Then, in the next breath, he's telling me about how the teachers that have been there for a while just don't give a damn.

This is just one more thing to point to.

You moving to Cambridge? I can't imagine how you work there every day. That place is literally the earthy-crunchy, pretentious, socialist-minded capital of New England.

Spartans didnt eat cupcakes.

It's a great place to work. People here are great and only think they are saving the world. :rotf2:

SPARTAN kids were brutally beaten on a daily basis to make
them either die or become spartans.... men with no sense
of pain or compassion ...becoming totally brutal as a result.

I hope you don't have any kids.

You really think taking a few minutes out of the day during elementary school is detracting from the kids learning? Do you think learning social skills at a young age is important or should they only stick to math, science, reading, etc...? School is about a lot more than just "learning" as you put it.

No kids here but I can understand your point of view as a parent defending your precious child.
Then there a those that defend a child for bring a small pocket knife to school. I suppose that is learning a social kill.
The teacher is there teach and the student lis there to earn and raises his or her hand when they want to speak. This will teach the child respect and knowing the true purpose of what they are there to done.
Kids are tough and will adapt
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Social development is not a job for teachers.If they have to waste their time with such matters we are doomed.Although I have been asked to bring in cupcakes for my childrens birthdays before,I reluctantly did so to keep the peace.You have to figure it's 20-30 minutes after cleanup,of wasted time for teachers and students alike just so Sally can have a party in her honor.Rent a bowling alley or go to laser zone if you feel obliged to do so. Then you will know how the teacher feels about this nonsense.We have done it all and will continue to do so,magicians,puppeteers,jumpy houses,pool parties.....just invite the class to your home and feel the LOVE!

Jeez Jimmy,how would you react to a legitimate problem?How many times does a kid take a plane to the eye before you decide it's probably a bad idea?I sympathize with the educators that have to pacify parents who have their own ideas about enhancing their childs educational experience.

SD, I'm curious as to what you think an elementary school teacher's job is? Is it strictly teaching the subjects like math, reading, history, etc...? My sister taught for several years in one of the worst school systems in Washington DC. She had 4th graders that didn't have table manners or understand that cutting a line is wrong. She worked with them on those things because they needed the help.

I agree that it's not a teachers job to teach how a student should act in society, but the social aspect of school is important. That's where kids develop a lot of these skills that are (or at least should be) taught at home.

If you get hit with a "paper dart" your reflexes aren't sharp enough.

You know things have gone seriously downhill when the school and teachers eliminate/restrict the activity of the students, and then complain that the kids are getting overweight from lack of activity and crappy school lunches (which probably are past expiration dates).
No more running, no tag, no ball throwing, no kickball, no dodgeball, no activity except sitting and eating sub-par lucnhes between classes.

Once we let schools dictate students' total health and well being, and the parents silently gave up the right to parent, this is the kind of mindless crap we are dealt. Instead of dealing with scraped knees and bruises we are dealing with childhood obesity, diabetes, ADHD, ADD and a cornecopia of "new" food allergies.
We are on a path of self-destruction, and our children are leading the way!

I used to value your opinion but now I can figure out if your dense or just like to argue. For yours and Redsox info - cupcakes for b-days are eaten at snack time, which the kids have every singe day. The kid who is celebrating their bday hands them out. The kids then clean up after themselves. Zero impact on the teacher, zero impact on valuable class time. Zero long term impact on their waistlines. So there goes 99% of your argument.

Dangles, cupcake banning is just one more example of liberal wackery. So if Joe Handsome gets all the chicks and Johnny Ugly cant get a date for the prom, should we ban proms? Where does it end? Should we only have lean and trim teachers in the classroom? Wouldnt fat ones set a bad example? So we ban paper airplanes for the 1 in 1,000,000,000.26 chance a kid can get hit in the eye.....how many future engineers, pilots, scientists may not be fascinated by flight ? I know i was as a kid. I want my kids to dream big, explore, take chances and if they suck down too many cupcakes they can learn the consequences and take action to get back in shape. I guess you look up to the people that tell you what to do, I look up to those that create their own paths. We keep boxing these kids into some world created by average citizens - teachers, adminstrators, boards who never traveled and lived 10 mins away from where they've grown up.

Agree 100%, well said

No offense meant Jimmy, but you border on extremism with your fantasy laden outlook.
I refuse to agree with you just to make you feel you are right.Send your kids to CO and let them ride with ballon man and eat cupcakes with the different folks.

Exremeism? my fantasy outlook is to let kids do what with the always did. Im not looking to make little Joey feel special, Im looking to get the school know it alls to let kids be kids. If the school proposed stopping birthday celebrations because it was disctracting the class, I would applaud them. But thats not what they are doing. they are saying you cant use food to celebrate anymore. So we're punishing the skinny kids for only one reason - fat kids. If you agree with that, fine. But its BS in my book.
I dont need you to agree with me, my letter has generated a ton of feedback from like minded parents including a school nurse who also agrees with me. If its extreme to let kids be kids then I'm gulity. Maybe you need society to raise your kids, but I dont. I know whats healthy and whats not.
I'd rather have my kids have skinned elbows and bruised knees than never knowing the feeling of running.

dangles - google the topic. Im not the only one that thinks its a dumb idea


Childhood Obesity Leads Some Schools to Ban Cupcakes for Birthdays - Yahoo! News

Cupcake Crackdown: Have the Food Police Gone Too Far? | Serious Eats

Schools Move to Ban Cupcakes to Help Quell Childhood Obesity - FOX Fan - FOXNews.com