Baba
Locking kitchen: right or wrong
Namaskar,
Here is some new research that bears great importance on the way some of our Ananda Marga children’s homes are run.
How hard will your child work for food?
(The below is courtesy of The New York Times)
In an experiment, researchers at Pennsylvania State University gave preschool children the opportunity to “work” for a food reward. All the child had to do was click a computer mouse four times to earn a cinnamon-flavored graham cracker.
But earning additional treats required progressively more effort. A second treat required eight clicks. Then 16. Then 32.
Some children were satisfied after one cracker, while others kept clicking for a few additional crackers. Most of the preschoolers were done after about 15 minutes, but some children stayed with it, accumulating as many as 2,000 clicks before the researchers ended the task after 30 minutes.
Children who are highly motivated by food — researchers have called them “reactive eaters” — are of particular interest to childhood health experts. Were they born this way? Or do parents create reactive eaters by imposing too many food rules and imposing restrictive eating practices at home?
The answer is studies show that children who grow up in homes with restrictive food rules, where a desirable foods placed out of reach, often develop stronger reactions to food and want more of it when the opportunity presents itself.
In the Penn State experiments, the same preschoolers who worked for food were later offered two types of graham crackers (Scooby-Doo or SpongeBob SquarePants) during their snack time. On five occasions, one type of graham cracker treat was freely available, while the other was placed in a glass bowl with a lid and put off limits. The restricted snacks were available for only five minutes of snack time.
Not surprisingly, the graham crackers that were off limits were enticing to all the preschoolers. But the children who had worked hardest in the clicking task — the “reactive” ones — also had the strongest response to the forbidden food.
They showed more interest in the off-limit snacks, and once they were available, took more and ate more than the children who had been less interested in clicking for food during the first experiment.
“The message is that restriction is counterproductive — it just doesn’t work very well,” said Brandi Rollins, a Penn State postdoctoral researcher and lead author of the study, which was published in February in the journal Appetite. “Restriction just increases a child’s focus and intake of the food that the parent is trying to restrict.”
Leann Birch, senior author of the Penn State studies and now food and nutrition professor at the University of Georgia, said additional research has shown that parents who impose highly restrictive food rules, such as putting desirable foods out of reach, tend to have children who are the most reactive to food in the laboratory.
The only way to break the cycle is to try to get the parents to respond differently.”
While restrictive feeding practices can backfire. Parents should be aware that tight control over food can set off overeating in some children. The solution is to control the quality of the food in the home.
Don’t buy soda, candy and chips and place them off limits on the top shelf of the pantry. Stock the house with healthful foods, and then allow children access and a reasonable amount of control over what they eat. At snack time, for instance, give them a choice between an apple or orange or vegetables with different dips.
The primary food rule should be “a high quality diet for all,” said Dr. David Ludwig, director at Boston Children’s Hospital.
(The above is courtesy of The New York Times - The Lure of Forbidden Food)
Parents should not have different rules for themselves
(The below is courtesy of The New York Times)
Parents should not have different rules for themselves, or allow a thin child to eat junk food freely and restrict a sibling with a weight issue. Parents typically don’t have to worry about an overweight child overeating when they are serving high-quality unprocessed foods. For instance, it’s almost impossible to binge on apples.
Occasional treats outside the home are fine. “Take the kid out for ice cream once or twice a week, but don’t keep it in the house,” Dr. Birch said. Dr. Ludwig noted that adolescents should be given more freedom to eat.
“I don’t like the concept of telling a hungry child you can’t eat,” said Dr. Ludwig. “Ultimately, we want children to gain better connection to their inner satiety cues. So if their body is telling them they are hungry, don’t ignore that — just pay close attention to the quality of the foods that are offered.”
(The above is courtesy of The New York Times - The Lure of Forbidden Food)
Helpless children can only convey pain
& discomfort through tears
Ananda Marga ideology guides us, “There are many people who themselves, that is, together with the members of their family, consume delicious food and drink but provide poor-quality food to their servants. The servants subsequently develop the habit of stealing out of greed.” (1)
Ananda Marga social philosophy teaches us, “Society must ensure that proper care is taken of human babies who are totally dependent on the care and protection of their parents for their existence. These helpless children can only convey their pain and discomfort through tears. To raise children from infancy to maturity is an immensely important task. I have said before that the members of society must advance in unison. The newborn babe is another traveller on the path. To adopt a child as our companion, as one included in the society, is called the “Játakarma” of the child.” (2)
Children realize that their parents have been deceiving them
Ananda Marga teachings on education state, "Parents deceive their children in many ways. By calling sweet things bitter and pleasant things unpleasant, they prevent their children from enjoying them. But by disregarding parental injunctions and prying inquisitively, as is the wont of human nature, children discover the truth. Then they realize that their parents have been deceiving them. As a result they start deceiving not only their parents, but their friends and classmates as well. So it is abundantly clear that children are taught the first lessons in the arts of lying and deception by their own parents at home." (3)
Baba guides us in Ananda Marga philosophy, “There are many parents who, due to miserliness or whatever reason, deprive their children of delicious food and drink. (If there is some reason for this deprivation, they do not explain it to their children.) They serve such food and drink to others in the presence of their children without explaining to them why they are being deprived. As a result, the children, under the pressure of circumstance, steal to try to satisfy their natural desires.” (4)
Some people keep their kitchen locked - especially the sweets. They unlock those sweets only when guests come. When children see the guests eating those sweets, then a tremendous desire arises in the mind to have those sweets. And that desire multiplies when those sweets are again locked up after the guests leave. So when no one is around then children go and steal those sweets.
http://anandamargauniversal.blogspot.com/
Fault lies entirely with the parents
Here the fault lies entirely with the parents - they are tempting and creating an intense desire in the child’s mind by denying them those sweets. The child is young and cannot understand the reason - whatever it may be.
Here are ways to address this situation:
(a) When the guest arrives be sure to give some of those sweets to the children.
(b) If the children are older - like a teenager etc - then try and convince them logically that there is only a small amount of sweets in the house.
(c) The worst scenario is if all the adults eat those sweets and the children do not get any.
(d) Top of all, if the kitchen is locked entirely and the children have no access to any food that is more terrible for them.
Tragically, we see similar things unfolding in our Ananda Marga children's homes in some places. Margiis bring large donations of sweets and those Wts and Lfts lock up those sweets. Sadly, those Wts eat the large share of those treats and give only a little to those kids. Then those children know what is going on - they understand those sweets are being kept from them.
http://anandamargauniversal.blogspot.com/
And the most problematic scenario is if the kitchen is locked because then the children have no way to address their metabolic needs - i.e. they are hungry and there is no food available to them.
Solution & prevention of child abuse:
mount security camera
The operative query is how to resolve the present crisis and prevent future ones. In this era of modern technology and science the answer is not so difficult. With just a little investment one can install a security camera system - which is common amongst businesses, institutions, and family homes. Those video cameras will record all activities in the childrens’ home. The Didi on-site and all children will be informed about the surveillance system and this will help them exercise restraint during challenging moments. Since the home is girls, the in-charge Didis and female committee members will be responsible for reviewing the video from time to time to ensure all is well in the home. With this system in place, the problem of violence and abuse in our children’s homes will be eliminated.
Remember, in various countries it is felony to not to report the child abuse case to the police, local authorities.
http://anandamargauniversal.blogspot.com/
This entire report and aforementioned solution has been presented here so we may avert public scandal and ensure the safety and well-being of those kids. This type of situation must be resolved and similar things should be prevented from cropping up elsewhere. To this end, a surveillance / security system will be invaluable.
In Him,
Kiran
References
1. Human Society -1, Justice
2. A Few Problems Solved - 6, The Spirit of Society
3. Human Society - 1, Education
4. Human Society Part 1, Justice
* * *
The below sections are entirely different topics, unrelated to the above material.
They stand on their own as points of interest.
* * *
== Section 2: Prabhat Samgiita ==
Those intellectuals and scholars who think about themselves become narrow-minded and degraded. Under such circumstances, it is impossible for them to reach Parama Purusa. Instead their mind becomes smaller. In their next birth they will not even get human life because their mind is lowly. That is the terrible danger of thinking about oneself: One becomes an animal or even a lower creature like a plant or an inanimate object. That is what is explained here below.
Ananda Marga ideology states, "You see, preya or káma remains busy with finite units only, and thus, the ego, who is the enjoyer of such fragmentary units, must be the small ego. It is impossible to develop such an ego which remains always absorbed in these units. Even people of wisdom, of high social status – even so-called intellectual and accomplished scientists and philosophers who are always concerned with earning high respect for themselves or saving their own prestige – even they pursue sensuous or fragmentary objects for the gratification of their egos. Perhaps they deliberately refuse to realize that these petty objectives of their egos will infuse their minds with meanness, as a result of which all their egoistic respect, prestige and status will ultimately be pulverized into dust." (1)
When a person does "service" for their own self-satisfaction that is not real service. Rather their ego is involved and instead of helping others they are ruining and destroying themselves by becoming more narrow-minded. Their future is very grim. The answer, as Ananda Marga ideology guides us, is to ideate on the Supreme and do thinking that you are serving Him. Then one's service will be true service and the one doing the service will develop a magnanimous and selfless outlook, by His grace.
Reference
1. Subhasita Samgraha - 3, Supreme Benevolence and Mundane Pleasure
== Section 3: Links ==
Recent postings
Other topics of interest
