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View Full Version : Daughter asked for carrots!



juliebove
07-21-2006, 03:09 AM
Now this actually seems like a silly request. We were grocery shopping when she spied those single serve packs of organic baby carrots. I'd bought them before. Many times! Put them away in the little drawer of her refrigerator then threw them out, uneaten and expired. Sent them in her lunch to school. They always came home, shriveled up and uneaten. The big refrigerator has big bags of baby carrots. It has big carrots. It has purple carrots. If she wanted carrots they were there. But at this particular moment in time she wanted baby carrots in a single serve pack. So I bought them for her. She said she would eat them. And she did.

She also asked for a salad with dinner. We dined out. She ordered a kid's meal. They don't come with salad. She often orders an adult sized dinner. Not that she needs the larger portion mind you, but given her food allergies she is limited as to what she can eat. And most of the time the stuff on the kid's menu (grilled cheese, mac and cheese, chicken nuggets, burger) is stuff she can't eat. But this particular restaurant does have one kid's option for her. She said she wasn't very hungry so she only wanted a small meal. But she said she really wanted a salad. She then asked if she could have one. And when I said she could, she got a puzzled look on her face and said, "Does it cost extra?"

"Yes", I said. "It does cost extra. But that doesn't matter. You can always have a salad if you want one."

She then mentioned the hot weather and said, "I don't know why but on days like this I only want to eat light, cold food."

She has been going to various dance camps these past few weeks, most of which require a lunch to be brought. She doesn't like to be left alone so she has managed to weasel a way for me to be there in some way every day. Mainly it's the lunch. Wants me to come eat lunch with her. And this week it is fine. I've been doing it. Haven't anything better to do.

I've seen what the other kids have been bringing. It's all healthy food. They were discussing it. The subject of "Lunchables" came up. One of the girls said they looked good. Another girl shrugged. Said she'd never had one. Her mom didn't allow it. So what were these girls eating? I did see the usual sandwiches. I saw some chips. But I also saw all kinds of raw veggies and fruit. Almost all of them had apple slices and baby carrots. My daughter told me she thought she should be eating them because they were.

Yesterday there was a 6 pack of Oreos in a lunch. The girl whose lunch bag they were in turned up her nose at them and began offering them around. She didn't offer my daughter one, probably because she knew of her food allergies. One girl took one and ate it. She was worried because her mom had not shown up with her lunch. Turns out her mom was at work and couldn't get away. So she was hungry and ate the cookie. A couple of the other girls took a cookie but did the strangest thing with them. Neither of them ate it. They examined them, played with them for a while, tossed them around like frisbees, then threw them in the trash. They all commented on how disgusting they were. All but the girl who had eaten one. Three cookies remained in the package. She protested when the owner was going to throw them away. Said she wanted them and would eat them. "Nope!", replied the owner. "You don't need them. They're not good for you." Into the trash they went.

I do know that the dance studio is very into nutrition. They do have snack and drink machines but are picky as to what goes in them. There is also a health food store right next door and most of the time when someone does get a snack they get it from there.

So anyway, I'm a wee bit annoyed that I had to pay "extra" for those single serve bags of baby carrots when I already had plenty of carrots in the house. But pay extra I will! I will never turn down a request for veggies. Especially raw ones.

dreamrawalwz
07-21-2006, 07:31 AM
Hmm, I see two sides to this unforunately. I'm sure it is about health, definitely. Thing is...dance companies can be strict about girls weight and the "they're not good for you," to me could mean "they'll make you fat." Maybe that's the side of me hat worries aboutt young girls and he influence of cerain spors...if it was jus for healh thten YAY lol.

juliebove
07-21-2006, 01:34 PM
Hmm, I see two sides to this unforunately. I'm sure it is about health, definitely. Thing is...dance companies can be strict about girls weight and the "they're not good for you," to me could mean "they'll make you fat." Maybe that's the side of me hat worries aboutt young girls and he influence of cerain spors...if it was jus for healh thten YAY lol.

Her dance dance is not like that. They do have classes in nutrition. Yes, many of the dancers there are underweight but they are also scrawny and short. But there are also some very tall kids. Kids of normal weight and yes, even some chubby ones. I don't think I've seen any really grossly overweight ones there. They take anyone there who wants to dance. Now granted the dancers skilly and experience is assessed and they are not allowed to take a class that is more advanced than they are.

I was just talking to a woman the other day who has been taking her older daughter there for many years. This studio does not put the girls on point until it is determined they are ready. She was telling me about all the various things they check to determine whether or not the girl is ready do to this to avoid injury. This really impressed me. I'm a former dancer and dance teacher. At the studio I went to, we were put on point at age 8. Didn't matter if you were ready or not. You just had to do what you had to do to get yourself ready. We were taught to ignore pain and put on a good show.

At my daughter's studio, any kind of pain is taken seriously. They are not allowed to dance unless/until the reason is found and it is determined that it is safe for them to go back to dancing.

Now granted my daughter is only going for lessons at this point in time. She does want to join the dance team. Technically she is too young/inexperienced at this point. Her name has been put on the waiting list because she wants it very badly. I was told it is not likely to happen this year. They did accept two younger girls but both have more experience than she does and both have older sisters on the team so it is no big deal for their moms to take them to events because they'll already been there.

Her school is highly rated. Ivan Koumaev from "So You Think You Can Dance" attended her school. His former hip hop teacher is my daughter's teacher. And his sister was the assistant for their class this last year. They are very good. I worked backstage at the recital. They had a special meeting with the parents about the recital and dress rehearsal and how things would work. They were told to feed the kids well ahead of time so they would not be hungry. They also provided snacks for the kids. I brought additional snacks because my daughter has food allergies and I know of some other kids who also have food allergies there.

I don't know how to post pics on here and don't have time to figure it out. I am taking her some lunch shortly and going to see Coppelia (sp?), the mini production they are putting on before lunch. But here is a link to her page on my website. As you can see, she is well fed!

http://mysite.verizon.net/reso2nqv/angela.htm

dreamrawalwz
07-21-2006, 02:52 PM
It's good to see a change in pace. I hope I didn't come on as I assumed they were doing it the other way, but I have seen many dance studios that have.

juliebove
07-21-2006, 03:26 PM
It's good to see a change in pace. I hope I didn't come on as I assumed they were doing it the other way, but I have seen many dance studios that have.

Yes, I know this is true. My teacher pushed me to move to NYC to become a professional ballerina. I was 12 at the time I felt I was too young. The more I studied about it the worse it sounded. I kept seeing stuff about eating only lettuce. And although I've always liked lettuce, I need to eat more than just that! At that age I was also horribly underweight and people just assumed by looking at me that I wasn't eating. But the opposite was true. My dad used to joke that I had a hollow leg because I was able to eat so much. I just couldn't seem to gain weight.