children

At the beginning of the September, the principal at my older boys' school called me to ask if the baby and I would be interested in participating the Roots of Empathy program in my oldest boy's classroom. Having never heard of this program before, I asked for some more information and promptly signed us up.

Roots of Empathy was founded in 1996 by Canadian educator, Mary Gordon. It is an organization that bring mothers and their babies into contact with school aged children as a way of teaching children empathy, understanding and compassion for others and themselves. It works on the understanding that raising emotionally healthy children results in emotionally stable adults -- that this emotional education will stick with these kids, making the world a better place for everyone one child at a time.

Apparently pre-packaged toddler meals, sold by Gerber, Heinz and various other companies, aren't actually that great for kids.

Color me not surprised.

What I find most surprising about the sudden media coverage of the nutritional content in these meals is that everyone is suddenly appalled.

Seriously? Have people never read the labels? Have they never tasted jarred baby food? Has it never entered the realm of possibility for these folks that feeding their children actual fresh, healthy food isn't that hard? Or that it's actually a lot cheaper than the commercial alternatives?