I read with interest and amazement the article on children nagging their parents for junk food in the supermarket ("Combating the 'nag factor,' Sept. 8). The entire situation is a foreign concept to me. Professor Dina Borzekowski observed that "every mom has a story about the tantrum in the cereal aisle." I don't, and I certainly don't have children who are overly angelic. Far from it. I have a 3-year-old and 6-year-old who are pretty typical kids with the exception of one thing — they watch very little TV. Maybe one hour a week, sometimes less. We don't do cartoons, and the shows that they watch are commercial-free because I select them from our cable's "On Demand" system.
Because my children aren't constantly being marketed to, they don't even recognize the multitude of cartoon characters that sit on the shelves at our grocery store, so we get to skip the begging and nagging. Not that I would indulge nagging anyway. My older son recently saw Froot Loops at the breakfast bar in a hotel that we were staying in. I first had to explain to him what they were and then he asked if he could have some. I simply stated "Son, none of those colors appear in nature, so no." He had a bagel instead. He knows I don't negotiate when it comes to eating bad food.
When we go grocery shopping and my children would like to get something that we don't typically purchase, we examine the label together. They know that we need to be able to identify the ingredients in an item before we buy it. If they don't know what "bicarbophosphate triglyptide" is and they want to get that item then it's their responsibility (with my help) to find out what it is and what it might do to our bodies. Knowing that buying a box of "mystery" food could result in a lengthy research project is usually enough to steer them toward less processed products.
In addition to cutting down on the desire for unhealthy food, having children who watch very little TV comes in handy when the power goes out like it did recently after Hurricane Irene passed through. I heard many parents complaining about their kids not being able to watch their favorite television show or play their favorite video games. Life without power didn't really look that much different for my children than life with power because they don't regularly watch TV and never play video games. One big difference I noticed with the power outage was the greater number of people at our neighborhood tot lot or taking leisurely strolls around the block. It was nice to see so many people off of their computers, away from their TVs and out enjoying the fresh air with us. I'd like to encourage more people to take a break from the digital grind — it pays dividends in so many ways.
Brigitte Jacobson, Baltimore