I'm really not trying to be offensive...

...but here's the thing. Today we went to The Coca-Cola Factory in Atlanta.
We did a walk-through. Saw the history. Watched a little video. Blah blah blah.

Then we got to The Sampling Room where you could sample 65 different Coca-Cola drinks.
Did you hear that? Sixty-Five!

I got through maybe three before I felt a major sugar rush and thought I might vomit all over the floor.

Then I looked around the room and saw what seemed like hundreds of kids there on a school field trip.

The room was packed with them!

They were running all around, gulping down gallons of Coca-Cola drinks from around the world.
Which, suuuurrreee, sounds like a fun field trip and all...

But then I looked more closely.

And I saw this girl:

And this one:

And this little girl who after gulping down her 5th drink said, "I feel gooooood!!"

Then there was this kid who I never once saw with an adult as he was running from machine to machine, drinking as much Coke as he could get his hands on:

And this little girl who was probably barely 6 years old, being handed cup after cup from her mother.

And lastly, this girl also from the school group:

Here's the thing. I'm really not trying to offend. But don't you think something's wrong with this picture? We're taking our children on school field trips to The Coca-Cola Factory and letting them run wild and bombard their bodies with cups and cups of sugary drinks all the while sending them the message that this is perfectly acceptable?
Aren't we supposed to be educating our children on the benefits of a healthy body?
Aren't we in some sort of "childhood obesity" crisis?
And these poor kids, they don't know better. They never learned, obviously.
Maybe our schools should think of other educational field trips that don't involve learning about the history of Coca-Cola and instead teach them more important things like health?

I don't know.

I obviously don't have children, but something just doesn't sit right with me on this one.
Maybe it's not the school's fault. Maybe it stems from the parents and their lack of education.
I remember one time when I was younger, this neighborhood family would give their barely two-year old a bottle filled with SODA.
Soda! For a 2 year old!
But that was so long ago, surely things should have improved in that department by now?
Apparently not, so I learned today.

Again, I don't know the situation. I don't have the answer.

I just hope that when I do have children some day down the road that I can feel comfortable and confident with the atmosphere my child learns and develops in.

Okay, that's my rant for the day.

Thoughts?

**Update: I very much understand the sensitivity to privacy and not publishing photos of children without their parents' permission. This is why I did my best at cropping or blocking their faces out. My point was absolutely not to show these children individually as that is not the point, but to make my point as a generality, as I think the issue of this topic is much larger. I thank you all for your concern with keeping their identities private and feel that I have done enough to do so and still stick with the purpose of this post.

xoxo