Tomorrow He Will Call Me a Richard

Posted on March 10, 2016

I was sitting here earlier watching our grandson, the 7 year old who is currently living with us, consume a snack that his mother brought with her when she came to visit. Long, long story involving metal objects, anxiety medication, an exorcism and Nutella. I won't bore you with all of the shenanigans and gyrations the girl puts her mother through, but I will tell you about the Nutella. Nutella is not good for a person. It is just one of those things that I know, you know, and the world knows. It is literally like eating cake frosting straight out of the can. Ah, but you might then mention the Hazelnuts! ANd maybe this is what gets people to keep buying it. The value of the nuts in this stuff is akin to the value of placing a screen door on a submarine.

When I look at this little kid I see a younger me. We are not blood related but I can see his future because it is my past. I have been fat since birth. WhenI was 6 months old I weighed 30 pounds. The boy is also overweight. We have tried to provide a better diet since he has been here and have been by and large successful. Then tonight I walked in to find that his mamma brought him a jar of Nutella and a box of some kind of cookie/crackers to shovel it with. And of course she protested that the Hazelnuts give it nutritional value.

I get a little down when I see something like this. A young woman who is, in my opinion, incapable of expressing genuine affection so she smothers him with food, one of the oldest substitutes for love.

When she cleared out, when everyone else went to bed I went to the pantry, removed the jar from the shelf and tossed it, opened, into the outside garbage. There will probably be hell to pay tomorrow, but I just did for him what I wish somebody would have done for me so long ago.

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Biking Syl

03/11/2016 4:14PM

You have a chance *now* to get him used to other food. It's so awesome that you're taking advantage of that! My little niece is at risk for diabetes, so she doesn't get any sweet stuff. And the kicker is: she doesn't even like it when she gets her hands on it. So there's hope! And hopefully you will be able to convince his Mom, too. Maybe suggest a few treats that he discovered, so you don't take it away from her, but you give her new ways to express her love with food. Still bad, but not as unhealthy.

Reggie

03/11/2016 11:16AM

So, this morning the lad wanted to put Nutella on his toast. I told him it was gone. His grandmother asked him why he was pouting. " Because Pop-pop are my Nutella." I quietly explained to him how unhealthy NutellA is. It is loaded with sugar and makes you want to eat more. It is not a good food....etc, etc. He sat quietly and said, no, Pop-pop ate my Nutella. So I suppose that I am on his list.

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Martha

03/11/2016 10:09AM

Good for you! The crap in food, especially for kids, is insidious. It's a never ending battle to fight to weed it out of our lives.

JayP

03/11/2016 7:45AM

Boy do I get what you mean. So many justifications from people for why a food is healthy -granola bars, nutella etc. - when those foods are not much different from cookies or candy. Granola bars are, for the most part, cookies in disguise. Nutella is healthy the way a Snickers bar is healthy - because it has some nuts? Does anyone actually think that? But we know people do because the advertisers feed us that line and we want to believe it, so we do. Excess sugar in our refined foods is killing us and people refuse to change. It's a tough line to walk, guiding others' food choices, but good for you for setting some boundaries. No nutella at your house is a reasonable boundary that will hopefully help show that there are better choices to be made.

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Marcie

03/11/2016 7:34AM

Good for you! We are killing our kids with sugar. You did the right thing - I applaud you!

Sarah

03/11/2016 7:29AM

I must be the only person on the planet who doesn't like nutella. I hope there was less grief than you anticipated.

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EyesinFLDenise

03/11/2016 3:24AM

My son will sit there and eat a whole jar of Nutella. You would do better to eat the hazelnuts, but I do admit, it does TASTE good. On a croissant..yummy...I think that is excellent that you are trying to help your grandson. When you see 10 year old kids these days with Type 2 diabetes, it is so sad since it can so be prevented.The lack of exercise is also a huge problem. When I was a kid we would get the neighborhood kids out almost every day during "good" weather to play baseball. We had enough for 2 teams and we all loved it. And, if we weren't playing baseball, we were riding our bikes. Get these kids out from in front of the tv and the video games! Otherwise there is going to be a LOT of young people on disability!And, as Julie said...how did the next day go?

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Biking Syl

Ella Woodward has a 'clean' recipe: http://deliciouslyella.com/nutritious-nutella-vegan-sugar-free/

EyesinFLDenise

Thanks for the link. I saved it. I agree about the Cacao powder. I buy organic Cacao powder. Cocoa is processed with lye and more bitter. Cacao powder is smooth AND dissolves better.

Julie Lama

03/10/2016 10:17PM

Hahaha. But oh boy tomorrow......

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