By today's standards, our parents could have been charged with abuse for spanking us and neglect for letting us run around unsupervised, and yet we did not need free meals at school because our parents provided for us. We didn't need supplemental lunches in the summer because our moms had lunch for us at home when we came in from running around unsupervised. We live in strange times. Not that I want to see children go hungry. I take feeding people very seriously. If you come within a quarter mile of my house, expect to be offered food. My problem is that free lunches only address a small part of the need. What these kids need are parents to provide food and a place to live and supervision and, most of all, love. A meal is a poor substitute for a mom.
Even in my childhood, a few moms worked. My best friend in grade school was in gymnastics, flute lessons, tap dance, horseback riding, and Bluebirds to keep her busy between school and when her mom got off work. The concern of that time was latch key children, those who came home from school to an empty house. Now, even moms who do not work, may not be home because their friends, pleasures, or addictions, are higher priority than their children. Even with the after school programs most schools offer, many students don't have a permanent home to go to afterwards. They and their moms (dad is seldom in the picture) couch surf from place to place, scrounge for food, have phones for friends.
As I said, we live in strange times. I wish today's kids had a dad at home to spank them when they need it, and a mom at home to listen to the adventures they had while running around unsupervised. Because now that those things are considered crimes, sexual abuse and violent, even fatal, child abuse and neglect are more prevalent than ever. Strange.
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