Thursday, September 24, 2009

Things I'm Not OK With

The roommate and I took ourselves to Subway last night for dinner. Night one of parent teacher conferences were over for me, our favorite sandwich was the Wednesday special, the kitchen (READ: bomb site of many dirty dishes) reflected our busy week, and cooking just wasn't in our cards. Subway was a welcomed easy meal. Until we witnessed the following scene in line behind us:

BMW Mom: Choose some chips, guys.
9 Year Old Daughter: I want these.
BMW Mom: Those? That kind is greasy and fatty and bad for you. You should get this baked kind like Mommy.
Daughter: I like this kind.
BMW Mom opens her bag of baked chips. Tells kids to open their chips.
BMW Mom: Oh my gosh! I feel like I haven't eaten in a year! Why am I so hungry? (Starts eating.)
BMW Mom takes 9 YEAR OLD Daughter over and compares calorie counts between baked and fried potato chips.
BMW Mom: See honey, that's like three times as much fat and calories as what I'm having.
Daughter looks crushed.
BMW Mom (not phased, still chomping on her chips, stepping up to the counter): Okay, what do you guys want to order? Oh, I'm so hungry!
Daughter (heartbroken): Ummm, I think I want a flatbread sandwich.
7 Year Old Son: I want pepperoni, bacon and cheese.
BMW Mom: Okay, flatbread turkey, I want turkey on 9 grain wheat, he wants a kids sandwich with, well you heard him.
They proceed through the line.
Subway Employee: What do you want on these?
Daughter (terrified): I'll just have that.
BMW Mom: Don't you want some yummy tomatoes or healthy cucumbers?
Daughter (still terrified): No, that's...that's okay.
They finish building their sandwiches, pay and leave.

Roommate: Could you please explain to me why, exactly, that woman gets to have kids and I do not?

I'm sorry, but does anybody see something wrong with this? I'm okay if you teach your kids to listen to their bodies. I'm okay if you expose your kids to healthy foods. I'm okay if you encourage healthy family activities. I'm even okay if you try and subtley, secretly do something about your child's weight. But teaching your 9-year-old daughter to count calories? What the hell is wrong with you, lady? She's nine! She's not even fat. What the hell? And we wonder what is the matter with girls' screwed up body images these days. Am I alone here?



P.S. BMW Mom, if you're reading. Eat a friggin' cheeseburger once in a while. It won't kill you. I promise!

10 comments:

CSIowa said...

Why no lecture about pepperoni, bacon and cheese? I suspect that the daughter was a target not because she was two years older than the son, but because she was a girl.

Stephanie said...

Ugh. I'm just sick to my stomach right now. What a horrible thing to do to your child. And that's the point: she's a CHILD! I hope BMW Mom comes down in mutant cellulite, and someone tells that little girl that she is beautiful...

Heather K. said...

Argh...that Mom makes me SO mad.
"Hungry." "Starving." "I feel like I haven't eaten in year." All while she eats her stupid baked lays...no wonder her child wants something else to eat. I hope someone gives her a cookie at school today.

Jen said...

Amen sistah! I am happy with my body in spite of my mother, who has an eating disorder. So there is hope for the child. Her will may prevail.

Rie Pie said...

That is so sad. I would like to personally clothes line this mother.

There is a difference between teaching your kids to be heathy and being plan stupid and cruel.

This is the latter.

FreeFamWorld said...

As the mother of four daughters, I am with you on this one! Our example speaks so much louder than any calorie counting exercise (which I've never done ~ certainly not like THAT anyway!).
Food is not the enemy!

And I feel a little steam pouring out of my ears for the LACK of control over the son's diet (though I'd have let my son have the same, if that's what he wanted).

The poor dear!

Sephalo said...

I hear ya sista'! That is messed up! If I ever see that BMW mom, I'll shove a Reeces in her mouth and run! :)

Rice Family said...

Lame that she only commented on her daughter's choice of a meal and not her son's choice! Hopefully the daughter has a really loving, powerful, healthy-in-all-the-right-ways female role model in her life, cause her mom is FAILING!!! I'm too much of a feminist for that crap! Roar ... so bugged and I wasn't even there!

* said...

Yes, that bugs. Really bugs.

I used to sit in a mommy & kid playgroup, though, with similiar minded mamas...when I whipped out my baggy of Cheerios, they had the nerve to ask, "Are those organic?" When I answered, "no," they'd move themselves & their child away as if it was toxic acid. True story.

Good thing I'm not in circles with those mamas still. I think I'd be tempted to bring Hostess Twinkies to the next playgroup and chain-eat them, one after another, alongside my children.

Miss Melissa Bee said...

HOLY HELL!!! I commend you for keeping your cool here. I probably would have turned around and said something. Stuff like this makes me insane, mostly because the mom is displacing her own body images onto her daughter. The idea too that the son can have whatever he wants, but the daughter can't is just wrong. Someone should tell the daughter she is beautiful, and the tell the mom there are worse things than being fat! Love your smarshmellow! :)