Isn't coffee bad for children this age?

[Rose]

I believe bad stuff in moderation is good for kids, it keeps junk from becoming the forbidden treasure in their heads. If you keep them too safe they will not know how to deal with things once they are on their own at school or a friends house. I am not a parent and am unlikely to ever become one, so please view this as my personal beliefs and not in any way as advice to people with kids.

This is actually a really good method, for children and adults. It's the same with sweets/junk food. If it's constantly forbidden then it becomes idolized.

If you allow the not so good stuff in small amounts, small being the key word, and let it be a treat for special occasions then it's less likely the kiddos, or yourself, will be begging for a cheeseburger or a candy bar every single day. By keeping the not healthy stuff in smaller amounts and controlling access to it, you can prevent it from becoming the enemy later on in life and *shock* the kiddos might learn self control because of it. :thumbleft: I try to practice the same thing in my life; if I want that candy bar, ok, but I better expect to go for a jog later and/or eat something healthy for dinner and stop after that ONE candy bar.

 

[LadyLuna]

Shaun... I'm fairly sure that while we were that little, the McDonald's shakes did not have as much caffeine as they do now.

Well McDonalds shakes don't have caffiene but that kid isn't drinking a mcdonalds shake, it's drinking a white chocolate mocha frappacino which is basically a cup of coffee that has turned very flamboyantly gay.

Jupiter, I am well aware that the kid is not drinking a McDonald's shake. I was responding to this:

Okay then it is no worse than a small milkshake at a lot of places. My parents let me have milkshakes growing up and I do not think it detrimentally impacted my health.

and the post where he put up the nutrition facts for McDonald's milkshakes. I was pointing out that milkshakes when we grew up are different than milkshakes today, so we can't really find out what the nutrition in the milkshakes we used to drink was.

 

[Nordling]

Milkshakes when I was a kid were delicious. Now they taste like chalk. The old ones used real, natural ingredients. I only have a milkshake now if I make it myself at home.

 

[TashaDutch]

Milkshakes when I was a kid were delicious. Now they taste like chalk. The old ones used real, natural ingredients. I only have a milkshake now if I make it myself at home.

oooooow we have a place here that makes that 'old' shakes... its like a 5 min walk, so i need much much strenght to only get once every 2 months or so...

on topic: bad idea obviously, my mom let me have a sip now and then, but i didn't even like it!
first cup i drank and actually enjoyed was when i was like 14,15
but the coffee discussed is probably lotsa sugar and milk, so yeah not suprised the kid likes it
but still... no no no, bad idea

 

[Anonymous]

That's not a cam model posting a picture of her kid, is it? I hope not. Either way, I think Amber is going to remove that picture or this entire thread. When Jupiter started a thread recently that showed pictures of Sandy Hook victims, the thread was deleted because it had pictures of children in it.

Anyway...I don't drink coffee. My mom, however, is the biggest Dunkin Donuts addict. Once she asked me if I'd steal my neighbors' newspapers (I didn't, by the way) so she can get the Dunkin Donuts coupons inside. *sigh* She was like "If they didn't get their newspaper by now, you can just take it. I want those coupons!"

 

[lordmagellan]

Milkshakes when I was a kid were delicious. Now they taste like chalk. The old ones used real, natural ingredients. I only have a milkshake now if I make it myself at home.

When you make these shakes, does your yard fill up with boys?

 

[Nordling]

Milkshakes when I was a kid were delicious. Now they taste like chalk. The old ones used real, natural ingredients. I only have a milkshake now if I make it myself at home.

When you make these shakes, does your yard fill up with boys?

Yup! And curmudgeon that I am, I yell, "You kids! Get off my lawn!"

 

[Jupiter551]

Milkshakes when I was a kid were delicious. Now they taste like chalk. The old ones used real, natural ingredients. I only have a milkshake now if I make it myself at home.

When you make these shakes, does your yard fill up with boys?

Yup! And curmudgeon that I am, I yell, "You kids! Get off my lawn!"

Boce just shoots them

 

[Nordling]

:lol:

 

[JessieWolfe]

I work at a starbucks, you'd be surprised how many parents give their kids caffeine.

But the frap could have been easily made without coffee added, kids love that stuff. We make TONS of kids drinks, pretty much everything in the store can be made kid friendly.

Although i once had a customer buy their 8-10 yo kid a large cup of black coffee...

 

[SoTxBob]

Milkshakes when I was a kid were delicious. Now they taste like chalk. The old ones used real, natural ingredients. I only have a milkshake now if I make it myself at home.

When you make these shakes, does your yard fill up with boys?

Yup! And curmudgeon that I am, I yell, "You kids! Get off my lawn!"

Boce just shoots them

I only shoot the ones that make it past the razor wire and electric fencing.... :lol: :lol:

 

[Keithy]

The major issue to me is the massive amount of caffeine in that drink. I just had a former coworker of mine telling me that his ex gave their kid an energy drink. So I'm pretty pissed about this kind of shit already. Massive loads of caffeine is bad for your heart. For an adult or a teen, the quantities are pretty high. You can down a ton of caffeine without worrying about it. For a small child, you can have very bad consequences VERY fast.
I recommended to my coworker to ask her what she gave their son. If she did it again, I recommended he call poison control to ask about overdose symptoms. In their situation, this could end up with her not being allowed custody of their child.
So, tl;dr: caffeine can and has killed children in large quantities.

 

[Zoomer]

Caffeine can kill anyone in large quantities... or certainly cause some serious symptoms.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/artic ... resso.html

But unless the kid is a toddler I wouldn't have thought it'd be that dangerous if giving just one. I wouldn't do it, but it doesn't mean I'd put her in the running for "bad mommy" award either.

As for pointing out calories - it's a treat isn't it? If it is daily consumption on top of existing other foods, then yes, maybe going fat. But if the kid is also running around and expending lots of energy, it isn't so much of an issue. Rather than getting worked up on just the kid having one drink treat on one day (can't be often, if she's taken a photo of it), you should worry more about the rest of the diet. Imagine the kid has a super healthy diet because the mother cares and makes sure he does have a great balanced, nutritional diet? In that context the calorie value of the drink really shouldn't matter on the "one off".

One little treat, much like most of us would have occassionally received as a kid, should be fine. The caffeine too. I'd be worried if it were a frequent (daily) occurrence.

In other words, you can't look at this picture and extrapolate to interpret it is "omg she shoves coffee down his mouth all day, and stuffs him with 20000 calories a day". It would appear to be an exceptional rather than norm event. There shouldn't be anything to get worked up about, and I am sure she'd be upset by the criticism levelled about her parenting on the basis of one photo.

 

[Anonymous]

There shouldn't be anything to get worked up about, and I am sure she'd be upset by the criticism levelled about her parenting on the basis of one photo.

This.

I know I would be pissed to learn that a FB friend started a forum discussion about me (along with a pic of me and my child), basically saying "Don't you guys think what she's doing is wrong?"

 

[Rose]

Caffeine can kill anyone in large quantities... or certainly cause some serious symptoms.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/artic ... resso.html

But unless the kid is a toddler I wouldn't have thought it'd be that dangerous if giving just one. I wouldn't do it, but it doesn't mean I'd put her in the running for "bad mommy" award either.

If we go with the context of this is a one time only treat, then it isn't so awful, but it's still not the best option. A decaf or lower calorie option would have been better.

No, it probably won't kill him if this is the only time he has one and it's just this once. The last time I had a white mocha frap I ended up getting the jitters for the rest of the day though so it's hard to imagine this kiddo not having some sort of issues from it. :? Here's hoping maybe they went to the park afterwards and he was able to run around a whole bunch.

 

[Jupiter551]

But unless the kid is a toddler I wouldn't have thought it'd be that dangerous if giving just one.

Is that child not a toddler?

 

[a_bee]

I would never say something to this girl because it's not my business. Maybe it's a decaf or something I dunno.

But I thought coffee is supposed to be bad for kids?

My parents never let me drink coffee.The last 2 years i started drinking sometimes when i want to stay awake. of course it is bad, the child at the photo look so young... i'm getting very angry when i see irresponsible parents like her.

 

[Anonymous]

There shouldn't be anything to get worked up about,

But, but, but....this is the Internet. What would we do on here if not get completely outraged over trivial things? :confusion-questionmarks:

 

[AnaVictoriaXO]

I would never say something to this girl because it's not my business. Maybe it's a decaf or something I dunno.

But I thought coffee is supposed to be bad for kids?

Wait a minute lol, is the first person to comments profile pic a bare ass? :shock: :lol:

 

[Jupiter551]

Wait a minute lol, is the first person to comments profile pic a bare ass? :shock: :lol:

That's what I thought too, then I wondered if it was a tricky photo of an armpit or something lol

Also I love how her avatar is the classic mirror shot.

 

[PlayboyMegan]

There's just no reason behind it. As others have stated, you can give your kid "fake coffee." I really do view this as minor abuse.

 

[Poker_Babe]

My (late) husband used to run a coffee stand. I can tell you that ALL coffee has caffeine in it... YES even the decaf.
Really, most of what we eat (at least in this country) is REALLY bad for you. There's added sugar in almost everything. Any "white" grain you eat (ie, white rice, white bread, ect...) is SUPER BAD FOR YOU. You know how they get it white? BLEACH!!!
Two good documentaries to watch that you can find on Netflix:

Food Matters



After watching Food Inc. I couldn't bring myself to eat a lot of foods that I loved for a few months. Especially (cow) milk. After seeing the cows that the milk comes from, the thought of drinking it made me sick.

 

[PlayboyMegan]

When I was taking care of 4yo twins, the ONLY way they'd eat their dinner, is if I gave them "dessert" after. I could have given them candy, cake, ice cream (and only a couple times I actually did) but the majority of the time for dessert they got things like fruit gummy snacks. It was sweet, so they considered it a treat. I see parents giving their kids that just for snacks, and that's okay, but then they top it with super bad stuff for dessert. There's just no need. Kids don't know the difference. The kids never got obsessed with candy, because they thought fruit snacks were candy.
Edit to add: I think it's also okay to let your kids know, that kids don't get to do everything adults do. Adults and kids are separate and you should be allowed to have a coffee in front of your child without letting them have some. If you're drinking alcohol in front of your child are you going to pour them fake shots? Do they also get to stay up till 3am with you?

 

[Jupiter551]

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Edit to add: I think it's also okay to let your kids know, that kids don't get to do everything adults do. Adults and kids are separate and you should be allowed to have a coffee in front of your child without letting them have some. If you're drinking alcohol in front of your child are you going to pour them fake shots? Do they also get to stay up till 3am with you?

Right, children will ALWAYS try to test parents boundaries and want to try everything because that's what they do and how they learn etc...It's the job of parents to keep those boundaries up and say yes you can have this, no you can't have that, etc.

Good parents set rules and stick to them, mediocre parents set rules and keep them sometimes and break them other times, bad parents set almost no rules at all, and REALLY bad parents set and break rules whenever it suits them to make themselves feel good so the child has no idea what is appropriate or not. This last one btw is one of the more common upbringings of violent offenders, dangerous people who are somewhere deep inside still confused, angry, conflicted children.

 

[VeronicaChaos]

.
Edit to add: I think it's also okay to let your kids know, that kids don't get to do everything adults do. Adults and kids are separate and you should be allowed to have a coffee in front of your child without letting them have some. If you're drinking alcohol in front of your child are you going to pour them fake shots? Do they also get to stay up till 3am with you?

Right, children will ALWAYS try to test parents boundaries and want to try everything because that's what they do and how they learn etc...It's the job of parents to keep those boundaries up and say yes you can have this, no you can't have that, etc.

Good parents set rules and stick to them, mediocre parents set rules and keep them sometimes and break them other times, bad parents set almost no rules at all, and REALLY bad parents set and break rules whenever it suits them to make themselves feel good so the child has no idea what is appropriate or not. This last one btw is one of the more common upbringings of violent offenders, dangerous people who are somewhere deep inside still confused, angry, conflicted children.

I agree up to a point. I guess I'm a bit conflicted (lol) because I didn't have many rules growing up, and I consider my mom to be a great parent. Very supportive, has always been logical in her teachings, and has always pursued me to follow my dreams and make my own way for myself. I was severely autistic as a child and now that I'm an adult you can't really tell, so it's not like she had an easy job raising me or anything. I know it sounds crazy, but I think the lack of rules helped me in a way; I socialized a lot in high school which helped immensely with my social abilities, and I learned how to be independent early on, and face the consequences of my own actions.

I'm not saying that parents shouldn't have rules for their children, I guess what I'm trying to say is there are so many things to consider with parenting that it's hard to make a blanket statement about good vs. bad parents. Especially since all children are different and respond to different things.

Having said that, my mom would have never let me have coffee as a kid. There's a difference between being a lenient parent and being a complete idiot.

 

[PlayboyMegan]

.
Edit to add: I think it's also okay to let your kids know, that kids don't get to do everything adults do. Adults and kids are separate and you should be allowed to have a coffee in front of your child without letting them have some. If you're drinking alcohol in front of your child are you going to pour them fake shots? Do they also get to stay up till 3am with you?

Right, children will ALWAYS try to test parents boundaries and want to try everything because that's what they do and how they learn etc...It's the job of parents to keep those boundaries up and say yes you can have this, no you can't have that, etc.

Good parents set rules and stick to them, mediocre parents set rules and keep them sometimes and break them other times, bad parents set almost no rules at all, and REALLY bad parents set and break rules whenever it suits them to make themselves feel good so the child has no idea what is appropriate or not. This last one btw is one of the more common upbringings of violent offenders, dangerous people who are somewhere deep inside still confused, angry, conflicted children.

I don't know if you already have children or not, but I think you'd make a great dad.

 

[PlayboyMegan]

.
Edit to add: I think it's also okay to let your kids know, that kids don't get to do everything adults do. Adults and kids are separate and you should be allowed to have a coffee in front of your child without letting them have some. If you're drinking alcohol in front of your child are you going to pour them fake shots? Do they also get to stay up till 3am with you?

Right, children will ALWAYS try to test parents boundaries and want to try everything because that's what they do and how they learn etc...It's the job of parents to keep those boundaries up and say yes you can have this, no you can't have that, etc.

Good parents set rules and stick to them, mediocre parents set rules and keep them sometimes and break them other times, bad parents set almost no rules at all, and REALLY bad parents set and break rules whenever it suits them to make themselves feel good so the child has no idea what is appropriate or not. This last one btw is one of the more common upbringings of violent offenders, dangerous people who are somewhere deep inside still confused, angry, conflicted children.

I agree up to a point. I guess I'm a bit conflicted (lol) because I didn't have many rules growing up, and I consider my mom to be a great parent. Very supportive, has always been logical in her teachings, and has always pursued me to follow my dreams and make my own way for myself. I was severely autistic as a child and now that I'm an adult you can't really tell, so it's not like she had an easy job raising me or anything. I know it sounds crazy, but I think the lack of rules helped me in a way; I socialized a lot in high school which helped immensely with my social abilities, and I learned how to be independent early on, and face the consequences of my own actions.

I'm not saying that parents shouldn't have rules for their children, I guess what I'm trying to say is there are so many things to consider with parenting that it's hard to make a blanket statement about good vs. bad parents. Especially since all children are different and respond to different things.

Having said that, my mom would have never let me have coffee as a kid. There's a difference between being a lenient parent and being a complete idiot.

It does vary by child, but I guess my opinion would be for the majority of children.
I, too, was raised with no rules. It did a great injustice to me later in in life. I was a rebel in school, got expelled. And I can't have a "normal" job because I can't have a boss other than myself. I was always taught that I was equal to adults and authorities. And I still feel that way to this day. I can't handle a boss, because I feel as though I am equal and they shouldn't tell me what to do. That happened with teachers, as well. I questioned their authority, when it was uncalled for. I was allowed to eat whatever I wanted, when I wanted, making me addicted to fast food and how I struggle with a healthy diet.
I will NOT be raising my children in the same way. I can already tell, from being a nanny for so long, that I am nothing like my mother when it comes to discipline.

 

[AllisonWilder]

Potential caffeine consumption aside, I don't understand why a parent would give a toddler that much sugar. I have a toddler and my mind is blown. There is no way I'd give him even a small milkshake from McDonalds, let alone a caffeinated beverage, when he could just as easily have a normal, child-sized, chocolate milk for a fraction of the sugar/calories.

I agree that kids should have some of the bad stuff in moderation, but if you're going to go that route, get the kid a fruit smoothie or something. At least that's (sort of) better for them.

 

[Anonymous]

I don't know if you already have children or not, but I think you'd make a great dad.

Yeah, I think Jupiter would be a great dad too! :thumbleft: