In Praise of Junk
Why giving kids only what's “good for them” is a bad idea.
by Brett Berk
March 9, 2009
The question then becomes, what kinds of junk are okay? As someone who's worked for the past ten years helping people design media, toys, and foodstuffs for young kids, I have a pretty good sense of what's out there. I've had the pleasure of helping folks make some truly junky stuff more wholesome — giving a show about talking fire engines a "social/emotional curriculum," lending cheesy snack crackers a sense of "optimism," or suggesting that assembling discs of meat and cheese onto crackers is "self-empowering." I've worked on stuff that's truly good for kids — electronic literacy toys, whole-wheat breakfast cereal, and some of the best-respected educational TV shows. And I've helped develop the burgeoning Better For You (BFY) market, trying to make things like watered-down juice, baked crackers, or a singing toothbrush feel healthful without being branded good for you (which alienates kids.)
So what does this mean for what you should let your kids have during their regulated, co-opted, scheduled junk time? Well, I'm of the mind that pretty much anything is acceptable as a treat, as the very category implies that it is something that is a) consumed only occasionally b) consumed in moderation and with supervision and c) intended to feel a bit indulgent. The important thing is not to confuse the issue. An Oreo is quite overtly a treat. A handful of Newman's Own Chocolate Alphabet Cookies contain extremely similar ingredients, but because the brand holds what we call a "health halo" — the perception of being BFY — people make the mistake of treating the product differently, allowing kids to have them more regularly, an action which can actually muck things up. Kids make sense of the world through categorization, so imagine your three year old trying to sort out how some chocolate cookies are a treat, and some are okay for every day. No matter how organic the ingredients may be, I promise you that consuming a bag of Newman's each week will never be healthier for your child than eating four Oreos.
The other important thing to be aware of is what I like to call your Junk Practice: what you use Junk for, and how it's implemented. Junk can be a reward, and its withholding part of a punishment. But dessert as a prize for finishing your dinner — eat more to get more? — feels counterproductive, and the wavering negotiation that often surrounds it ("Three more bites of broccoli and you can have cake. Fine, one more.") only deepens the confusion.
Your goal is to teach kids that they're in charge of junk, not the other way around.
Life works best with young kids when they're made aware of your expectations, parameters, and repercussions in advance — and these things are linked directly to the situation at hand. Sadly, junk often ends up getting used in just the opposite way: ad hoc and as a sudden bribe or penalty. Abruptly precluding your kid from watching Handy Manny because they've dropped their toast on the floor jelly-side down at breakfast is neither concrete nor grounded. Whereas if you have a standing plan to allow Handy Manny viewing each morning, so long as your child get dressed and eats something, your response to transgressions of these rules can be direct, comprehensible, and transparent.
Remember, your child is not born with an innate understanding of how junk operates. Your rules, provisions, and actions give them the tools — ones they'll use for the rest of their life. Your goal should thus be to teach them that they're in charge of junk, not the other way around, and in order to do this, you have to know how to be in charge of it first. To get you started, I'll give you the same advice I gave Amanda: Stop worrying so much about what kind of cookies you buy, and worry more about when, where and to what end you're distributing them. As with most things with young kids, what it is is far less important than how you handle it.
©2009 Brett Berk and Babble Media
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