So today I was having a good spirited discussion with my imaginary online friends about the garbage marketed directly at young children and their parents in the guise of “food.” At the risk of sounding like an old lady, things sure were different when I was a kid.

So I just wanted to take this time to thank my mom for not sacrificing my health for the sake of imagined convenience. My mom usually cooked well-rounded dinners for us when my brother and I were growing up. She made an effort to keep sugary cereals and crap out of the house. She bought low-fat stuff (though of course we are now discovering that it may be the low-fat diet craze that is now responsible for some obesity) and didn’t let us eat fast food that often. My mom wasn’t some kind of hippy or anything. She just paid attention to what was actually in the food she served to us. Sure we had frozen dinners sometimes. But there was always a vegetable on the plate.

I hope when I have children I do the same for them, even if the supermarket aisles are filled with edible play-doh by then.