He’s decidedly mixed about it. On the plus side, he said, the pouch promotes nutrition and gives children choice, moving us away from “a generation of a certain kind of discipline and of a clean-your-plate attitude” that was less flexible in its ideas about child-rearing and life.Ugh, this is really ridiculous. The fact that these are food products marketed specifically toward busy, working parents--and the fact that it's being pun in a FOOD POUCHES WILL RUIN YOUR KIDS AND MAKE THEM SELFISH ANIMALS strikes me as, deep down, a bit sexist. Get back in the kitchen, working two-income mom, make your kids home cooked meals, even if dad's not there because he's busy.
But “it’s going to create a lot of self-absorbed kids,” he said.
It also eliminates structure around eating, which he doesn’t like: “At age 3, it’s a packet of vegetables,” he said. “At age 13, it’s the chips or candy bar they think they deserve.”
Dr. Wansink and his wife have three children under the age of 6, and he advocates keeping children at the table and power struggles at bay by “taking the attention off the food.” At night, each member of his family answers four questions: What was the high point of the day? What was the low point? Whom did he or she most appreciate? And what direction is your compass pointing tomorrow?
“It takes tremendous resolve by parents to say, ‘Mealtime is mealtime,’ ” he added. Even if meals are not always shared with Dad, as is often the case in Dr. Wansink’s family, because he travels a lot for work.
Mr. Grimmer believes the pouch’s popularity can be attributed to the emergence of a new way of relating to our children. He calls it “free-range parenting.”First, Mr. Grimmer doesn't know what the fuck he's talking about. When people use the term free-range parenting, they are referring to the polar opposite of pablum in nonbiodegradable pouches. They are referring to a heartfelt and increasingly difficult effort by some parents to carve out a social life for their children that isn't overrun with consumerism, playdates, and an overwrought executive assistant's idea of structure.
Parents, he explained, want to be as flexible as modern life demands. And when it comes to eating, that means doing away with structured mealtimes in favor of a less structured alternative that happens not at set times, but whenever a child is hungry.
What Mr. Grimmer is selling, he said, is a way to facilitate that: mobile food technology for the modern family.
“It’s on-the-go snacking, on-the-go nourishment,” he said. “It moves with kids and puts the control in their hands. The Gerber generation was raised on the idea that baby food in a glass jar was the pinnacle of health. We’re challenging that notion.”
“It takes tremendous resolve by parents to say, ‘Mealtime is mealtime,’ ” he added. Even if meals are not always shared with Dad, as is often the case in Dr. Wansink’s family, because he travels a lot for work. [And has delegated said mealtime ritual to his wife and children whilst sipping his pre-threestar-restaurant-dinner cocktail by the hotel pool, Ed.]posted by likeso at 12:18 PM on June 22, 2012 [9 favorites]
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