IWF’s own Julie Gunlock has a fine piece on The Corner about the latest potential government intrusion into our private lives: feeding our kids.


 Actually, I don’t have any kids, but, if I did, I think I’d be able to discern their nutritional needs, thank you very much. Not so fast, says First Lady Michelle Obama. The first lady had an op-ed in yesterday’s Washington Post that pushed for passage of a bill that would increase the amount of money provided for school lunches. It would also make more children eligible.


 Nobody wants to cut off genuinely needy children, but it must be said that the program is already bloated, and the underlying assumption of the First Lady is that parents can’t be trusted to feed their children. Julie notes:



But the first lady isn’t considering a lot of newer research on childhood obesity. Just a few months ago, Ohio State University released a major study that found that children are at a lower risk for obesity if they observe three easy rules: eat dinner with their families, get adequate sleep at night, and watch less television. All of these activities fall under the control of parents – not schools, and not government.



Nor is Mrs. Obama considering her own experience: When publicly discussing her own daughters’ weight issues, she has repeatedly said that it was her intervention that turned the problem around. It wasn’t a healthy school-provided lunch, a physical-education program, or gardening lessons. The thing that made the difference was her own personal involvement: her insistence they watch less television, switch to skim milk, and get more exercise. She also talked to them about how to make better food choices.


One time, many years ago, I could barely get through the check-out line at the Adams Morgan Safeway. What the hold-up? I asked (grumpily). The check-out clerk merely opened her cashier’s drawer, revealing an overflow of WIC (Women Infants and Children) vouchers. I would never advocate cutting this program, and I don’t want poor children to lack for good meals. But I couldn’t help wondering what it does to relieve such a vast number of parents of that basic obligation of feeding a child.


 Let’s, at the very least, hope that this bill, which would relieve so many more parents of this duty, as basic a duty as there is, doesn’t pass.