More cotton candy and hot dogs!

There's an interesting opinion piece in this month's Newsweek about how our parent fears could be more dangerous than the things we actually fear (old playground equipment, unrefined sugar, summer.)

I especially enjoyed the reference to an Australian study about how playground injuries are on the rise, despite extensive safety improvements.

"One of the suspected reasons: the safe new play structures are so boring that kids are taking more risks in order to have fun."

This really spoke to me since I'm afraid of just about everything. So, last night we decided to be fearless and make brownies an hour before bedtime.

We even licked the bowl.

Link to article.

Comments

[wRitErsbLock]

Whoa! Living on the edge! :)

[Liz]

Oh, my goodness, those pictures are adorable. I can't believe how grown up Annabella is. She's such a little lady now and the boys are so cute.

A little sugar before bedtime never hurt anyone. ;-)

[Brandi]

So daring! We must have been on the same wave-length I did this Wednesday night, except with cookies. It was a ploy to get my oldest to eat her dinner- isn't that so bad? It is really hard to be spontaneous when you are forced to be routine and responsible.
Your kids are so darling, btw. I've been lurking on your site FOREVER- since you had Annabelle, and I watched you on Screen Savers, too.

[Suzanne]

I think brownies before bedtime is a fine idea. Give the kids the sugar and get them to bed before the sugar rush kicks in! :)

Trust me, when they're grown, making those brownies before bed will be the type of thing that they'll remember, rather than a trip to the playground. Warm, yummy brownies can't be topped by any slide.

Now that my 7yo is a budding chef, it's become a great exercise making them from scratch. He doesn't realize we're drilling those math skills.

Congrats on the Podcast.

[Irnbru]

I was just wondering since when did moms begin to fear sugar like it was the bogeyman?
My sister brings her kids up with healthy meals but all the sugary snacks are in her house, no limits. While occasionally my niece is the one to splurge on it, it does her no harm none of this 'sugar rush' that obsessive mums think their child has- because they want to run around and behave like..wait..children! There is no scientific study that says kids that eat sugar makes them wild etc.

Is it better for them to eat a banana?..sure. But like adults I found if you ration or put a 'bad' label on foods kids want it even more and grow up with that notion that its bad in their heads and studies show it can lead to binge eating etc.

Back to my sister, her kids hate Macdonald's and pizza hut, they prefer home cooked meat and veg. But then my sister weaned them on home cooked veg - not bottled stuff and ever since then their preference has always been no preservative foods. Well mostly!

So glad your children enjoyed the brownies :)