Conference moira::parenting_v3

    Lyn:
    
    I saw a report recently comparing the "goodness & badness" of paper
    versus styrofoam cups.  Apparently, the process of making the paper
    cups is not so terrific for the environment.  I'm not sure if this
    is what your daycare center is concerned about or not.
    
    As an aside, I send a plastic sippy cup with Cory to daycare each day.  
    The providers just wash it out between uses.  
    
    Hope this helps.
    - Terry

    At Katie's first center the normal process in the toddler room was that
    we send a sippy-type cup to school for Katie to use.  Our personal
    experience was fine.  No extra cold, etc.  The current center Katie is
    in (Preschool) has their own cups, plates etc., again no extra colds
    or sicknesses.
    
    Other experiences may vary.  I know personally, at home I don't use
    paper cups either, we have little glasses (old shrimp cocktail glasses,
    or small jelly glasses) that we use.  They are a great size, they hold
    around 4 ounces.
    
    

Ditto, .3 ... I, too, go along with Juli's daycare center's requests ...

I tend to believe this "cup issue" it's not just "environmentally" driven,
though, but possibly more convenient for the daycare center, less costly 
to daycare, easier for them to monitor ...or whatever!.

Juli takes a lunchbox, too ... but hers has a thermos (one of those pop-up
lid kinds that you can drink from or use a straw with).  This "benefit" is
what made me decide to buy this particular brand of lunchbox ONLY TO
DISCOVER that Juli's daycare requires them to use "daycare" disposal paper
cups!  Oh, well ...

I, too, find that it's difficult to fit plasticware in between a thermos
and the rest of the lunch.  What I tend to do is:  AVOID using plasticware.
I use a lot of sandwich-bag-ziplocs!  A little extra AIR provides a little
more "buffer" protection ... but I'm sure Juli has had her share of flattened
sandwiches, but no complaints!  I also buy the smaller sized yogurts and
I tend to pack a little of this and a little of that, so Juli has some
choices.  Today's lunch:  sliced BBQ'd hotdog (in a very small container),
three slices of cheese "quartered" (in a baggie), 12 washed grapes "(in a
baggie), banana, plastic spoon/fork, thermos of milk ... and
a BIB (well, sometimes we get lucky and it comes home "used").  I still
had room for a bag of chips, if I wanted to add them, too.

With putting a sandwich in a baggie, you can stack the sandwich to fit the
available room, too.  "1/4's 4-deep" or "1/4's 2-deep" or "flat".

As for including a cup ... wouldn't the cup on top of the thermos qualify?

I pack the fruit-cups (metal containers), applesauce (plastic containers),
yogurt (plastic cups) in their original containers.  I even used to send
everyday silverware, except it didn't always come home ... so we just
switched over to plastic and don't have to worry about it!

Sometimes Juli's box comes home with the "leftovers", but I thought it was
a way for the daycare center to let me know what she ate or didn't eat
and when enough fluffer/nutter sandwiches came back home I finally got
the hint that Juli mustn't like marshmallow, especially since the jelly/nutter
sandwiches NEVER came home!  (Can you imagine a daycare center keeping track
of just what Johnnie did or didn't eat each day?!  The process of sending
the leftovers back home DOES SEEM TO WORK.)

Jim/I have always felt free to ask any questions and Juli's center 
(Hudson Children's Center) is EXTREMELY understanding and obliging.  We've
really gotten to know her instructors and the director well enough that
either Jim/I would definately NOT hesitate to ask any questions or bring 
up any issues (if we had any).  They have mentioned things to us that we
never would have thought about had THEY not brought it up TO OUR ATTENTION.

Good luck ...

Dottie

    
    Try using containers that are short and fat (cylinderical)
    instead of the traditional sandwich shapes. My favorites
    are yogurt containers and half height thermos.
    I have to pack lunch and snacks for my daughter in kindergarten
    and finf that small cylinderical contianers fit best in
    lunch boxes.
    Paper cups are kind of hard to recycle because of the wax coating.
    Durable goods are the best way to go. It may be a bit inconvenient,
    but people has been doing that for ages. 
    
    
    
    Eva

What do they give the children to drink?  If you don't mind yours having
juice boxes, send a juice box every day, and keep a "juice box holder" (prevents
them from squeezing it and getting it all over themselves) to keep at the
daycare.  (of course the juice boxes are made of non-recyclable materials...)

Kristen

    The booklet sent home on the first day was specific, NO juice boxes,
    beverages are provided.  Yup sure, every so many weeks we have to
    provide a gallon of milk along with two other parents.  For snack and
    the beverages that go with them, I really don't know what is served. 
    I'd like to believe it's juice of some kind, but last Friday he came
    home saying he'd had "Ice tea" for snack, it may have been something
    else that got lost in translation.  I did query the teacher at one
    point and was told they serve whole wheat crackers for snack, I've also
    been there a couple times and seen popcorn, either way it's just a
    handful.
    
    I guess that my concern is first, the spread of colds if the cup isn't
    washed, second I'm concerned the cup may be lost,(I hate loosing
    tupperware cups!) and my own opinion is that this is just another way
    of the school to save money, by not having to pay for paper cups.
    Another concern is the school's method of brainwashing, he's already
    refusing to eat anything with any amount of sugar.  The teacher is
    tellling him "sugar is bad for you", and as I mentioned in another note
    quite a while ago, have go so far as to take what they consider to be
    sugar laden snacks away from him that I've sent for lunch, like granola
    bars and the fruit shark bites.  Now it seems to be more "socially
    acceptable" to use a reusable cup, for no other reason than it is
    socially acceptable.  They are definitely NOT recylcling the paper
    cups, so what are we accomplishing by using water to wash the cups?
    

    If they're asking for you to send a snacktime-beverage glass (to go
    with the wheat crackers/popcorn), then do you have to send a second
    container for the beverage you pack to go with lunch?  What if you sent
    milk for his lunch, but they provided "iced tea" at snack - yuck, I
    wouldn't want either one to follow the other in the same glass. 
    Neither Alex's daycare nor her present kindergarten wash(ed) ANY
    containers.  They come back dirty (complete with uneaten
    fluffernutters, Dottie!).  If the Y does dishes, I'd make sure AJ's
    cup is "loud", unique, and has "A J" written all over it, in permanent
    marker so it wouldn't get mixed up with someone else's cup.  Do they
    expect the cup to "live" at the Y, or is it going to ping-pong back and
    forth each day?!
    
    I'd verbally stomp all over the teacher who took away AJ's granola bars
    and shark bites.  If she has a problem with what you provide for him,
    she should talk to *you*, not embarrass and deprive AJ.
    
    Leslie  

Let me get this straight.  Is it their idea for each kid to have
their own reusable cup that only that kid uses?  Or is it their
idea to have a supply of reusable cups that anybody can use,
without their being washed?

If it's the former, then there is no health issue.  You can't catch
a cold from yourself.  If it's the latter, that's a poor health
practice and probably against state regulations.

I get the feeling that this isn't so much a question of paper vs.
reusable, but your objecting to what you see as someone imposing
their values on you.    

Personally, I'd be thrilled if someone brainwashed my son into
refusing to eat anything with sugar in it.  But I'd object if the
school started monitoring what he had in his lunch, confiscating
what they didn't "approve" of.

Clay

Since this isn't the only note you've recently entered about your daycare 
providers (also problems with AJ's "soiling incidents"), are you satisfied 
overall with the care they are providing?  Perhaps it's time to consider 
changing....

    re: a couple back the cup is "ping-ponged" back and forth, but on the
    good side generally comes home clean, which hopefully indicates it's
    washed after each use.
    
    Yes, I have been having problems almost since day one with the
    teachers, primarily the younger one, imposing values on the kids, and
    in answer to the last reply when I take my month off, starting at the
    end of next week I had originally thought of keeping him there two days
    a week, just to not disrupt his routine.  But as things progress I even
    have serious doubts that will happen. I will at least explore some
    alternatives during the month off.  The price per week is a big
    consideration, and in the beginning it seemed reasonable.  But when you
    add in a gallon of milk per month, contributing to various special
    parties, being badgered until you take part of a day off to accompany
    them to a field trip, I should have stuck with my former provider, even
    after she raised her rates it would have been cheaper!
    
    I'd even go so far as to send a box of 100 paper cups with him, if
    there wern't this "social issue" of being different to deal with.
    
    Thanks for all your support, keep em coming!
    Lyn
    
    

    
    I would NEVER let anyone take anything away from my daughter's
    lunch box. My daughter's daycare sent out suggestions for
    appropriate lunch box items at the beginning of the school year.
    The center suggested that we shouldn't send fruit roll-ups,
    candies and other junk food. But, they will never take food
    away from the kids. I do not think any daycare center has the
    right to interfere in that manner. I would talk that issue over
    with the teachers. 
    Trips - my daughter has been in the same nursery school/daycare
    for almost 4 years; I have never gone on any trips. I do send
    parties items in once in a while, but they never expected me
    to take time off work to "volunteer". Don't let them make you
    feel gulity, etc. If you want to chaperone, that's one thing,
    but you shouldn't have to.
    It sounds to me you're not too happy with this daycare and
    the paper cup issue is just a trigger.
    
    
    Eva