Does Free School Breakfast Enable Parents to Fail?

Chere, I know a woman who is a divorced, single mother with three kids. Yes, they are all fathered by the same man only he has been a deadbeat dad since the divorce. Because she works so much, her children are responsible for themselves a lot of the time. And she struggles to make ends meet. But their independence has been a positive in their lives as one of them gets straight A's and wins art contests and another is a black belt in kung fu. These are nice kids who brush their own hair and look out for each other. I've also seen the flip side to this coin: the rich parent who's too busy shopping to be bothered to pick up her sick child from the nurse's office. This article is disgusting and a total up yours to poor parents everywhere. Rachel Campos-Duffy ought to be ashamed of herself.

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Hi Kyuu,
I am a single parent of a 3 year old and I work full time with not as much help as I would like from her father. So I am fully aware of the single mother's plight. I know how difficult it is in the morning believe me. I actually think that breakfast at school is not a bad idea. I give my daughter breakfast at home and she also has the option to eat at school. My point is you do not know a person's life, or what their situation is etc. There are poeople who are very well off financially and the kids are not taken care of physically or emotionally. There are people who are not making much money and they have the happiest most well taken care of children around. It depends on the person. The problem is when you lump people all in one category, which we often do, that is unfair and ridiculous.

My post was thanking Sue for actually asking people to have more compassion and not be so judgmental.

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My god people, it is breakfast, a sign of goodwill from the school. Not every family consists of a stay at home mother, some women work. Not every family consists of children who will get up early enough to eat breakfast at home.

And another thing, just because the parents don't get up to make breakfast doesnt mean that they are bad parents. Honestly some of you people here have skewed parenting ideals. "If they don't do it, then the are trash parents." A BAD parent would be a parent who doesn't have food in their house, a BAD parent is a parent who doesnt buy clothes for their kids, people who don't make breakfast for their children ARE NOT BAD PARENTS, and honestly does a twelve year old need Mommy or daddy to get up to pour them a bowl of cereal?

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You have raised several valid points, especially as to the fairly low costs of a homemade breakfast (even with organic ingredients!). I'm ok with the free breakfasts for qualifying families (paid for with my tax dollars), but personally I think we should have conditions attached to such programs. Participating parents should be required to fulfill certain requirements in exchange for the free meals, such as successfully completing an at home time management class and familly/health/exercise/nutrition/food prep class (with an open book test that has to be turned in!).

The goal of such requirements would be so that these parents improve their parenting skills and are less dependant on such programs down the road. What if on most days their children would receive free breakfasts, but on one day a week or every other week (perhaps with increasing frequency as time goes on and if in the child's interests) such parents should have to be on their own, later turning in a log showing when they woke up (at a suggested time), fed their children (and what they fed them), and the successful completion of a "morning checklist." It would be nice if the parents could get at least some feedback on their log with constructive suggestions, even if not from an individual.

Some would say this is demeaning to impose these requirements but people on unemployment compensation have to turn in "search for work" logs, proving they are making a diligent search for work while they get unemployment benefits. Why shouldn't these parents have to show what diligent efforts they are making for their kids and themselves??

We should expect these parents to show how they are helping themselves and their families (as much as they can) in exchange for what they are being given. Again, the goal should be to help parents improve as parents and to foster good habits in their children, so hopefully a cycle of dependancy and dysfunctionality is broken.

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I think you bring up some good points but you seem to be ignorant to the hunger problem being felt in our country. $1/week might be a small amount to most of us but to some families, it is $1 more than they have. Are you aware that some children ONLY eat at school? Some families are struggling to the point where REAL hunger is occuring in their home. We need to be more compassionate and not assume the worst in ALL situations.

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I think MANY of YOU people are very ignorant and acting as though your so perfect!

My husband is in the navy and I work early in the mornings. My kids sometimes like the breakfast in school, seeing how the bus that they take comes so darn early! They go to school before I am even home from work!

I know in this state breakfast only started in some schools a few years ago, I buy breakfast items. But my kids likes to buy breakfast to spend time with their friends and make sure they are on time to class, which is fine with me! I see nothing wrong with kids eating at school, my kids will grow up knowing how to take care of themselves and not ALWAYS expecting MOM to cook for them. I think being self sufficiant is the greatest gift you can give any child! they won't be hanging on my apron strings!

Last time I checked they have two hands are very capable of making oatmeal in the microwave also, but PREFER to eat at school!

Did any of you people EVER think that maybe that mom works the graveyard shift and had gotten her son up before she passed out from exhaustion! NO, she is just a messed up mom to EVERYONE!

I think it is hypocritical and very blind judgement to say these things about this "MOM" when you don't know the whole story! I think you people should maybe look around your commumnity and see what is going on out there instead of passing judgement on others around you!

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To be blunt, Rachel is an idiot. I'm sorry, but most of the time she can't see the larger picture with regard to any issue. It's all tainted by a narrow view of the world. As a conservative, women like this make me cringe. These are the ones that make the rest of us look self-important, cold and selfish. We aren't all like that.

This program is in place for the children, not lazy parents. Some of us conservatives support it because it's a benefit that goes directly to the child. It benefits them and society to have children in school that can focus on learning because they aren't distracted by hunger.

Breakfast programs aren't some vast liberal conspiracy to enable parental laziness. Good grief. I'm a conservative and I support it.

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I get angry when I see children coming to school half-dressed and dropped off at the cafeteria door for their "entitled" free breakfast and watching the parents talk on their cell phones that thy can afford and then stop off at Starbucks for a nice $4 cup of coffee. We have had some parents demand a free breakfast even though they are 30 minutes late for school and get very, very nasty with principals and cafeteria workers if the parents don't get their "entitled" food. Parents' priorities seem to have changed in the last generation and the schools are taking on more and more of parenting responsibilities. It is my opinion that parents need to be responsible for the kids that they had and the government needs to take many steps back, out of the situation.

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Sorry, I think that this theory is completely wrong and so are many of you. Yes, there are negligent parents out there, but there are many who can't make ends meet despite doing all the right things -- and sometimes that means there isn't enough food in the house.

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To those of you who argue that the cost of providing a bowl of Cheerios at home is too much for some, why does that justify th far greater cost of providing breakfast at school? There is no logic there. If our economy is so bad, we should be cutting unnecessary costs such as (a) opening school kitchens and cafeterias hours early, (b) manufacturing, preserving, packaging, shipping, and heating individual breakfasts, (c) throwing away tons of food that won't be eating, (d) throwing away tons of paper and plastic waste that won't be recycled, and (e) taking up class time for something non-instructional. I would love to see an estimate of the per-capita cost of the school breakfast program.

The true number of kids whose parents really can't afford breakfast is very small. For them, wouldn't it make more sense to provide their families with a big box of generic cereal and powdered milk?

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