More Luck, and a delicate dance of words

We had another positive school experience this week, as Jake's World Languages teacher contacted me to discuss the upcoming "food exploration" day in her classroom. As an electives teacher (and an itinerant one, at that) she was not part of our easy breezy 504 meeting last week, so I was particularly happy that she either got the memo or was being proactive on her own, and thought to check in.

We were playing a little phone tag, so I followed up with an email thanking her for her concern, and telling her that Jake will sample as he wishes (with the exception of fruit juice or regular soda), then report to the nurse's office to check his blood sugar and call me. We have no idea what people will bring in as snacks, or what will interest Jake, or how hungry he'll be for lunch (which occurs about 45 minutes after World Languages).

The teacher responded that she would "try to keep an eye on what Jacob samples that day just to make sure he is not overeating as I know that could be a problem."

I immediately had a vision of Jake, mid-croissant, being quizzed about how much he'd eaten. Overreaction? Likely. But clearly worth addressing, in the hopes of heading off la nourriture de police*.

My response:

Don't worry about him eating too much - this can be addressed pre-lunch, and, if he overeats, we'll use it as a 'teachable moment' about how to make food choices. Think of it this way, it's not a question of 'is he allowed to eat that?' it's a question of 'is he prepared to address any problems that might come up as a result of eating that?' and the answer is 'yes!'

Here's hoping that concept makes sense, in any language!

*I google translated "the food police". Who knows what they actually call it in France!