Received Klara’s daily report from daycare and had to Google “sloppy joes” to find out what it is that she enjoys so much for lunch.
Found photos of sloppy joes. Feel very puzzled and confused.
13 responses to “Culture Shock”
-
Sloppy joe sandwiches are very tasty as an occasional snack, especially if they’re spicy — but I’m surprised that a daycare center would be feeding “junk food” to toddlers.
LikeLike
-
It doesn’t have to be “junk”, it depends on how they make it. If they make it themselves, it’s pretty close to bolognese sauce with bread, and I don’t see anything wrong with that. But if they use a canned sauce, then it would be pretty unhealthy/salty for toddlers.
LikeLike
-
I think most children in the US love Sloppy Joes. As others have said a lot depends on how the sauce is made (canned – blech, homemade – it’s a lot like bolognese but thicker and it should be tangier, almost like barbecue sauce).
A lot of people don’t eat it like a hamburger but use a fork and knife (I remember doing both).
LikeLike
-
What is the source of puzzlement and confusion?
a) the name?
b) the dish?
c) that Klara likes something that seems like junk food?
d) all of the above
e) a and c
f) b and cLikeLike
-
Not being American the only place I have heard of a ‘sloppy joe’ is in Back Home by Michelle Magorian. The main character wears a large baggy jumper called a sloppy joe. The book is set in the 1940s so I assume American slang has evolved since then.
LikeLike
-
She’s quite particular about food at home. But at the daycare she eats anything they give her. Peer pressure is on! 🙂
LikeLike
-
As for junk food, I think that running away with a horrified expression and screaming “Horrible junk food! Take it away!” is not very healthy. There’s nothing tragic or immoral about eating junk food every once in a while.
Kids’ eating habits are making mommies so neurotic it’s just sad. Everybody pretends that all they feed their kids is spinach because it makes them feel virtuous. The amount of crazy that spills out of people on this subject is simply scary.
I had a bunch of adults fuss over my food when I was a kid, so I’m not doing this to Klara.
LikeLike
-
Yup! Everything in moderation is my motto when it comes to food. Unless it is cheese, for which I make an exception and consume in large amounts 🙂 True story: we were eating out one time with the kids. My son (3 yrs then) put down the cupcake he was eating and started eating salad spinach instead. Absolutely zero prompting from us; in fact we had to try pretty hard to hide our amazement. So, you know, sometimes they decide to eat spinach all by themselves 😉
LikeLike
-
Of course, the spinach eating made me feel very virtuous 😉
LikeLike
-
I know the feeling. Klara devoured my grilled asparagus the other day and I was swollen with pride in my amazing mothering skills. Of course, the next day she ate nothing but store bought cookies and my swelling went down. :-)))
LikeLike
-
-
-
-
-
-
Not directed to Clarissa, or really anyone in specific, just the general content of the thread so far.
Very few foods are all that innately healthy or unhealthy, but as others have pointed out a lot depends on how it’s made.
“Manwich” with processed factory bread — not so good. And probably not all that nutritious.
Homemade or high-quality bolognese type sauce with good, non-factory bread (Publix makes quite good bread in their bakery if you live in the South), and it’s pretty decent — no worse than most meals that people wrongly perceive as “healthy.” In fact, I have a problem with that entire framing of “healthy” vs. “unhealthy” as humans are omnivores and we can eat nearly anything without it being all that detrimental, especially in moderation.
In America, though, any food that tastes good is seen as “unhealthy,” so enjoying a food automatically makes it bad or a “guilty pleasure.”
LikeLike
-
It’s an evicerated perogi, which is why she finds it so gross.
LikeLike
-
I used to be like this, too–I used to be really picky about what I ate at home, but with friends I’d be willing to try new things. I don’t know about when I was really little, but when I was about 12-13 or so I really started trying things with friends that I didn’t usually like to eat or would never consider approaching at home. It wasn’t until recently that I really started to try those things at home, too.
LikeLike
A conservative literary critic and college professor
Clarissa's Blog 
Leave a comment