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Relationships3 min(s) read
Published 10:25 08 Jul 2026 GMT
A mother has shared her shock at reading a book her five-year-old child had brought home from school after discovering its disturbing message.
Most parents would assume that any book provided for children within a school has been thoroughly checked to make sure it is indeed appropriate for the age group that will be reading it.
However, sometimes things fall through the net - as one mom discovered when she noticed something within one of her daughter's books that could be pretty harmful.
TikTok user @shrimpyvampy revealed in a video, which has racked up almost 800,000 views: "So my five-year-old daughter came home from school with this book to read,” showing viewers the front cover of Queen Aneena's Feast by Julia Donaldson.
Donaldson is a beloved children's author who also wrote other classics such as The Gruffalo, Stick Man, and Room on the Broom.
While the mom thought it was going to be a simple phonics exercise, when reading through the book, she noticed a worrying theme by the fifth page.
The story follows 15 queens who attend a feast, with each choosing different foods to eat, with one line reading: "Queen Jean had heaps of meat, Queen Nelly had heaps of jelly, but Queen Teeny Weeny did not eat.”
The mom added: "So she reads that page and I’m like… sorry, what now?"
Rather than letting her daughter continue reading, the mom decided to read ahead herself, and found it continued to be concerning.
In the following pages, Queen Teeny Weeny is offered and refuses both vegetables and jelly. When the other queens asked what Queen Teeny Weeny would like to eat, she responded: "One leaf. One green leaf."
Another queen heads off to get her a leaf, which Queen Teeny Weeny eagerly waits for before turning down tea and sweets, brushing her teeth, and heading home.
The mom raised concerns about the message this was sending to young readers, adding: "In what world is that a good book? I don’t know who… it’s Julia Donaldson. Julia Donaldson wrote this?
"In what world are we perpetuating these harmful ideas that Queen Teeny Weeny only wanted one leaf to eat?"
She revealed that she sent a note back to the school with the book, telling them why she did not let her daughter finish it, and revealed that they'd taken it out of circulation in their classrooms.
She added: "I’ve written in her book about it and I said she will not be finishing this book. I think it’s a really harmful idea for a five-year-old girl to read about.
"Am I going crazy or is this literally insane? I hope it’s not."
She revealed that the school later confirmed that it had removed the book from its classrooms, and thanked her for raising the issue.
The mom also discovered from other commenters that the book had reportedly been republished in recent years without the Queen Teeny Weeny character.
Queen Aneena's Feast has been used in schools in the UK for over two decades as part of a phonics series written by Donaldson to help young children practise certain sounds.
Many believed that the Queen Teeny Weeny character was meant to represent a comically fussy eater rather than being a comment on weight or nutrition.
lifestyle3 min(s) read
Published 13:46 04 Jul 2023 GMT
A woman has revealed that she pulled her son out of school after he received a note from a teacher about his food choices.
Megan Peavey, from Bradford, New Hampshire, took to TikTok to share with viewers that she had been "snack-shamed" by her child's preschool teacher.
She said that a teacher allegedly penned a message on her toddler's used Pringles container, which read: "Please help us make healthy choices at school."
The mom was left outraged by it, saying: "They snack-shamed my three-year-old, they snack-shamed me, by writing that passive-aggressively."
Watch Megan's TikTok below:Megan revealed that she messaged the school personally, and explained that in her household they don't "label" food as "healthy and unhealthy" because "that starts eating disorders".
The mother-of-two then concluded her video by asking her followers: "What would you do? Do you think that's ridiculous? Because I do."
Many people rushed to the comment section to share their similar experiences. One user that disagreed with the school's note wrote: "My niece 7 was told she could not have her snack because it was deemed 'unhealthy' by their standards. She had to sit and watch everyone else eat."
Another penned: "I’m a prek teacher. Never would I ever tell a family to 'make healthy choices.' My girls get a bag of chips w their sandwiches along w fresh fruit."
A third quipped: "Send Pringles the next day that day 'when you buy it, you can decide what the snack is'."
In a follow-up video, Megan revealed that she had decided to approach the school director about the incident and shared how "disappointed she was about how it was handled" and that they should have "reached out to her directly" instead of writing the note on a piece of "trash".
In response, she claimed that the director reminded her that they had previously asked parents to start sending in "healthy snacks" for their children.
"I didn't consider Pringles to be this unhealthy snack. I considered things like Cheetos, Doritos, Milky Way bars, things like that to be an unhealthy snack," she continued. "I would pack him Pringles with a granola bar, yogurt, fruit... regardless, did I think it was appropriate to write it on my son's empty packet of Pringles? No."
The mom contended that the school didn't apologize for the situation and that instead, she was told that they "no longer [had] a part-time spot" for her child during the summer program.
So, she decided to remove her son from the school altogether. "It just felt so uncalled for and disrespectful," she said. "I walked downstairs, and I checked my son out, and that's that. We're done there."
In another clip, Megan shared that she had a background in mental health counseling, and reiterated that she won't "let my kids get an eating disorder because a school is labeling things as healthy and unhealthy".
"That to me is unhealthy," she concluded.
relationships4 min(s) read
Published 11:15 22 Jul 2025 GMT
A mother has shared her straight-to-the-point response after a teacher told her daughter "how to eat her lunch" while at school.
Getting kids to eat their dinners can be a difficult task at the best of times, but the person who is most responsible for their own child's nutrition is the parents themselves.
One mother was left furious after she packed a lunch for her three-year-old to have at preschool but found out that her teacher had told her to eat it in a specific order.
Caroline, who posts on TikTok as @pezzi.shop, revealed that the incident sparked her to leave a note in her daughter's lunchbox telling her teacher how she felt.
She told her followers: "My three-year-old came home from school yesterday, telling me that her teacher told her that she had to eat all of her 'good' foods before she ate her 'bad' foods. She couldn’t have her cookie before eating her sandwich and cucumbers.
"In this moment, I felt a little frustrated by the antiquated instruction from the teacher, but I responded saying, 'Well that’s silly. There are no good foods or bad foods. Food is just food!'"
She shared a clip of her opening up her daughter's lunchbox, which had a unicorn print as well as the name 'Evelyn' embroidered on it. revealing that she'd put a note in telling the teacher: "Hi, Evelyn has our permission to eat lunch in any order she chooses.
"None of her foods are 'good' or 'bad' - they are just food! Thanks!"
She added that this outlook was not what she had been brought up with herself but that she had educated herself on parenting and nutrition in order to instil these values in her own children.
The mom added: "Three years old. At three years old someone has told her that foods are good or bad. I am so proud that she had sensed something was off - to know that was not right enough to tell me about it.
"We talk about it all the time at home… If you only eat carrots or broccoli your body won’t have protein it needs to grow strong muscles. If you only eat chicken, your body won’t have enough energy to do things like run and play all day long. We need little bits of everything to make sure that we are able to learn and play and grow all day long."
She thanked the other accounts that she follows for helping her realize how important the dialogue around food was while raising children so that she had the "confidence" to send the note back in her daughter's lunch bag.
Her followers praised her for dealing with the situation so well, writing: "As a former teacher, my thought was the parents packed their kid's lunch with the intent they eat it; in whatever order or amount!"
Others added: "As a para that goes to lunch with the kids I [love] this so much. Eat in whatever order you want, just please eat is my motto," and: "As long as my daughter is full enough to concentrate I don’t care what part of her lunch she eats first. It’s usually mostly fruit and deli turkey anyway… but she could start with Oreos for all I care."
Another commented: "my first graders always ask if they can eat dessert first and i always tell them they can eat the food in any order they want as long as they eat!", as someone else added: "Good for you for saying something! I would be happy if my child ate the food, in any order."
lifestyle3 min(s) read
Published 15:07 24 Jul 2018 GMT
For many of us, school lunches probably seemed like more of a punishment than a treat. They were almost always too cold, they were never seasoned properly (if at all), and the options to choose from were always incredibly limited.
The solution, of course, was to bring in some food from home. But even that has its problems - especially now that institutions are trying to have more influence on the health of their students. Some schools have taken this so far that they have started sending notes home to parents to inform them of whether their child's lunch was "good" or "bad": an act which one mother has described as "food-shaming".
Natalie Thompson, a parent and dietician from Queensland, Australia, caused a bit of a stir on the internet recently after her son was sent home from school with a note about his packed lunch. "My son received a card in his lunch box ... and a newsletter stating the school rules around what can be eaten at each lunch break," she wrote on her blog.
It may surprise you to find out, however, that the note was not a negative one. In fact, it was the complete opposite. "We love your healthy lunch," it said - obviously intended as a compliment. Thompson did not take it that way, though, and penned a lengthy letter to her son's principal in order to explain why she viewed this action as a form of "food-shaming".
"I have concerns about the approach the school is taking around educating parents and students about food and nutrition," she wrote;
"Judging food as ‘healthy’ and ‘treats’ is assigning morality to food, which is a typical dieting behaviour leading people to feel a sense of fear, guilt and shame, particularly around their weight, body shape or body size. These feelings can result in individuals valuing themselves in response to what they have in their lunch box and what they have eaten."
Thompson then went on to say that, while her son was happy to have been complimented on his choice of lunch, he was now in the mindset that foods are inherently good or bad, and that only some foods should be allowed to be eaten.
"[My son] now views foods as ‘healthy’ and ‘unhealthy’ and is fixated on receiving another card. As a concerned dietitian and mother, I am now working to repair the damage this school nutrition guideline has caused my son and our family. I am particularly concerned that if the next round of cards are given out and my son does not receive a card he will become distressed.
"All children are worthy, regardless of the choices their parents make around food and nutrition. I feel the card system judges food and eating in attempts to educate parents through their child."
She continued:
"Food is neither ‘good’ or ‘bad’. Food is food with varying nutrient contents and can all nourish the body, mind and spirit. A variety of food is the key to health and happiness, as food is not purely eaten based on its nutrient content when biologically hungry. Food also serves a role socially and culturally."
Thompson then went on to suggest that, rather than use the card system, the school should educate children to "eat intuitively" and to enjoy food without judgement - and she certainly has a point. After all, while it's obvious that the school were trying to reward children for eating properly, all they did was push the idea that those who eat well are "good" and those who do not are "bad" - and that sort of thinking can lead to bad habits later on in life.
Of course, it's good to encourage healthy eating - but it's also important to promote a sustainable and positive attitude towards food.
us news3 min(s) read
Published 09:43 28 Jul 2024 GMT
A mother has spoken out after she bought a Burger King kids' meal for her daughter and was left horrified to find it was covered in a stranger's blood.
Tiffany Floyd had taken her four-year-old daughter to the drive-through restaurant in Getzville, New York, at around midday on Friday to get some food.
She had given the meal to her child unknowingly, and only realized something was wrong when her daughter complained about there being "ketchup" on her food.
Tiffany explained in a TikTok video that quickly went viral: "I gave her the bag because obviously I'm a busy mom, I just gave her the bag to eat her food and I heard 'Mom, I don't want ketchup.'"
At this point, Tiffany still believed it was simply a mix-up with her order, and took the bag back from her child, when she made the horrifying discovery.
"I look in her bag and there is blood all over her bag, her toy, her fries, everything," the mom continued.
She says she then called the restaurant to complain and was told by the manager that "somebody did cut his hand" and that they would refund her if she came back to the restaurant.
Tiffany also contacted her local health department but revealed there was "not much" they could do besides make a report, but she wanted to raise awareness in case anyone else's food was contaminated during the lunchtime rush.
Tragically, her daughter had already eaten part of the meal when the mom realized it had someone else's blood on it, and now has to wait a month to be tested for any blood-related conditions she may have contracted as a result.
The mom added to the New York Post: "I instantly told her to spit out her food. She did have fries and a bit of her hamburger. And then I looked at my meal, and there was blood on mine too."
Tiffany's daughter will have to undergo a blood test in one month's time, and she added: "And then [she will have to] get her blood work done every so often for a year to see if something comes up."
She claimed that the manager wouldn't disclose who the injured employee was, as she added: "If they just make him go and get tested, my daughter would not have to get pricked."
She also claimed that the local health inspector at the Niagara County Department of Health said “he spoke to the same manager, who said, ‘I did have somebody cut their finger, but they didn’t think they were bleeding that bad.'”
The Niagara County Department of Health has yet to respond publicly.
Tiffany says she contacted Burger King's corporate office on Friday after the incident, and they responded on Saturday to say that they would pay for her daughter's medical expenses.
We did tell Burger King that medical expenses was not enough," the mom said. "And how my daughter has not eaten since this and my anxiety is through the roof and what if my daughter needs professional help from this."
Burger King told the outlet in a statement: "We were deeply upset and concerned to learn of this incident. We have been in contact with the Guest and are working with her to resolve this incident.
"This incident was the result of a team member in the restaurant who injured his finger, and upon noticing immediately stepped away.
"We closed the restaurant to retrain all the team members and hired an external company to complete a deep cleaning. We expect the restaurant to re-open Monday and are fully paying team members for any lost shifts during this temporary shut down."
us3 min(s) read
Published 15:42 02 Mar 2023 GMT
An 11-year-old boy has spoken out against X-rated content at a school board meeting by reading from an explicit book he got from his middle school's library.
A sixth-grader named Knox Zajac wanted to make a statement in front of school officials in Maine by reading aloud a book titled Nick and Charlie - which is for 14 years and older.
The novel was written by Alice Oseman and follows two early teen boys that steal wine from their parents and proceed to experiment sexually with one another.
"This book was on the stand. I would like to read you a page," the young boy said at the podium during the meeting, per Maine Wire.
Watch the video below (starts at the 7:10 mark):Knox continued to read an excerpt from the book and said: "'My back over my hips. I asked if he should take his clothes off. He was saying yes before I finished my sentence.
"He's pulling off my T-shirt, laughing when I can’t undo his shirt buttons. He's undoing my belt. I’m reaching into his bedside drawer for a condom, we're kissing again, we're rolling over,'" Knox said, adding: "Obviously you can see where this is going."
After reading more of the passage, the youngster claimed that when he rented the book out to show his dad, a librarian allegedly asked him if he "wanted more" or a "graphic novel version".
Knox's angry father Adam, spoke up to address the Board of Windham Raymond School District - also known as RSU-14 - and said: "That’s my son, 11 years old, and went to his library and found it by the entry door of our library.
"This is the smut that he is finding, alright? I don’t care whether it's gay, straight, bisexual, or whatever the terms are for all of this stuff - it doesn't need to be at our school. It doesn't need to be at my 11-year-old’s library," he added.
Adam then proceeded to blast the book Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe which also shows explicit descriptions of two minors. The age advisory in the novel is for readers 18 years and older.
"This is bulls***," he remarked. "We do not need to be having literature that is showing boys how to s**k d***… you may think the schools know what’s best for our children. Do you know who knows best for our children? The parents."
According to The New York Post, state and federal law prohibit the possession or distribution of pornographic material involving children.
Speaking to CBS 13, Knox explained that he took a stand because he "felt uncomfortable" after seeing the book in his middle school library, saying: "Before we went in, we were skimming to see if (the book) was that bad.
"And when I saw that page, I genuinely felt so uncomfortable. I had to spread the word about what was in this book and what is in our middle school," he went on. "So I wanted to make sure I could get it out as soon as possible, and make it shut out of schools."