Anonymous wrote:From the responses received here, it is obvious that people are either for or against something which most certainly clouds their judgement.
I am a nanny who also brings her lunch to work. My employers are Muslims and do not eat meat. However I cannot even fathom what kind of lunch I would bring that didn't contain some meat. Primarily my sandwiches since I do not like cheese or PB & J, etc. While my boss is against killing animals for human consumption on a personal level, she allows me to bring turkey or chicken sandwiches to work. Trust me, her 6 + 8 yr old sons do not sit at the table salivating over my lunch. They happily eat their spicy rice dishes and could care less what the hell I am eating.
For this woman to actually think her kids will be affected by a nanny who munches on Cheetos or Pringles or whatever, etc. is just ludicrous. Kids could care less what their nanny eats. As long as they have their lunches in front of them, they are good. If a child asks about the nanny's lunch, all she has to say is "This is Nanny's lunch and that is your lunch," and leave it at that.
I disagree with this. Kids don't care quite so much about real types of food that they don't like or have never had a chance to eat themselves, but it is a different story when it is something like a sugary treat. My charges won't ask for my beef when I am eating it, because they either don't like it or don't eat it often enough for them to remember the taste of it and want it. One of them likes french fries and the other does not. So while one wouldn't care if I ate them for lunch, the other child WOULD want some of them as well. With sugary foods, I can say that no matter if the kid gets to eat treats like that on a regular basis or just rare occasions, if they saw me eating a piece of cake or a bowl of ice cream, they would want some as well. They might have better manners than to actually ask for some, but at least 7/10 times they would be thinking that they want some and if offered would take me up on that offer. Even if not that hungry or wanting a lot of it, they would go ahead and take a few bites before leaving the rest forgotten.
So while the kids might be happy eating their spicy rice while you eat your sandwich instead, I think that you are wrong to think that most kids wouldn't be affected by a nanny who eats cheetos or oreos with her lunch, while the kids are sitting with her and watching.
While I do agree that saying that is your lunch, and they have theirs, is what it comes down to, you really aren't teaching the kids any good healthy eating decisions when you eat snacks like that in front of them instead of making some healthy snack choices of your own as well. Kids will learn in time that once they are adults, they can choose to make any kind of decision they want to, but this is the time to try and model good eating habits for them, so that they will KEEP making good choices later in life when it *is* totally up to them.