Australia loses the plot amid bans on ham and cheese sandwiches and fairy bread

First it was ham and cheese sandwiches to be banned in school canteens, and then fairy bread. Now it’s clear Australia has gone too far.

Fairy bread has been a popular school snack for decades in Australia. Picture: Supplied

COMMENT

If schools are going to start dictating what children can eat for lunch, you may as well leave the little terrors there 24-hours-a-day.

Actually, no. That’s what the schools want – it’s easier to shape their impressionable young minds that way.

First it was Western Australia banning ham and cheese sandwiches from the canteen. Then South Australia decreed that fairy bread should not be served at school events under any circumstances.

Now – again in SA – parents are reportedly receiving notes from schools critiquing the composition of their children’s lunchboxes, requesting that treats such as biscuits be omitted in favour of fruit.

How about this: get knotted.

It is no business of schools to dictate to parents how their children should be nourished.

They’re interfering in diet now. Then it’ll be whether or not you should smack your child or take them to church.

Fairy bread has been a popular school snack for decades in Australia. Picture: Supplied

A ham and cheese sandwich.

It is simply the long arm of the state trying to control how you raise your children. That ought to be the inalienable right of the parent.

Yes, obesity is a problem. Yes, there are fat kids. But it is not the role of the state to fix that via some kind of food dictatorship.

It’s no secret that children like sweet treats. Perhaps some are indulged more than they should be. But if you start allowing schools to make those decisions then why shouldn’t they make decisions about every other aspect of a child’s life?

I grew up with fairy bread, peanut butter sandwiches (can’t have them now either because some other Little Johnny can’t control himself even though he knows he’ll swell like Violet Beauregarde) and small packets of chips.

Nuggets and hashbrowns were for lunch every Saturday.

I turned out just fine. A reasonably active child will burn off those calories before lunchtime is out.

I was rake thin as a child and right through my teens. It wasn’t until I discovered the wonders of alcohol that I put on any weight – and I think I look healthier now than I did when my shoulder blades stuck out.

Had my parents thought I was getting fat, I’m sure they would have done something about it. And sure, some parents don’t care. But do you really think schools dictating what can go in lunchboxes is going to change that?

Imogen Fieg, 7 and Elouise Fieg, 5 with Fairy Bread at their house in Woodcroft SA. Picture: Ben Clark

You can’t legislate against stupidity.

But you can legislate against fun – and that’s exactly what they’re doing.

First they took away all the good playground equipment lest a child break a bone. Now they’re taking away little pleasures such as fairy bread and jam.

The ultimate objective of the public health brigade is to remove your choice and make you live their idea of a healthy life.

No drinking, no smoking, no sugar, no meat – you must be as miserable as them.

If you get kids used to that kind of control then it’s much easier to exert it when they’re adults.

Anyone who thinks the government really cares about their health has rocks in their head.

They just think they can raise your children better than you.