Kids and Eating Organic

It's a pet peeve of mine when journalists discover parenting "trends" that involve overanxious mothers hyper-controlling their childrens' lives. It's usually pretty bogus, and has more than a whiff of burnt scolding to it.

The latest "trend" under fire is that of mothers feeding their kids exotic and/or organic foods. According to the winking anecdotes in the New York Times, teaching your children about good and bad foods might make them anorexic or give them OCD.

According to Slate.com, kids can't really taste the difference between foods, and besides, kids are too precocious these days anyway. And what idiot let them in the kitchen with all those knives and wires?

The real truth lives somewhere like my house, where we try to buy organic produce when we can -- if we don't forget or it's not too expensive. (Which it usually is.) So you know what's helpful? A guide of which foods to buy organic, which to ignore. And do you know who published this simple list? A parenting site. They know that we're too busy cooking, cleaning, working and reading to our kids to be all that concerned.