Meet MeMe Roth, our Favorite Mad Mom of the Day. She’s not just mad, like angry (though she is that), she’s also, according to her, “mad, like crazy.” See, Mama Roth is on a crusade against junk food at her school, P.S. 9. Not cafeteria lunches, according to the Times, but other treats like “the cupcakes that come out for every birthday, the doughnuts her children were once given in gym, the sugary ‘Fun-Dip’ packets that some parent provided the whole class on Valentine’s Day.” She’s written a lot of angry letters about it, and even trained her kids to take such items, put them in a sealable Tupperware container called a “junk food collector,” and bring them home to mom — where the angry letter cycle begins again.
The Times seems to side a little bit with her fellow PTA members and parents who are annoyed by her tirades, which you can tell by their choice to display wide-angle-lens photos of Roth along with the article. But we were sort of on her side, in a rogue, hilariously outraged kind of way. If her kids were tough enough to stay away from junk food and endure the humiliations of having to store it until their mother could judge it, then why not? It’s not like she’s the first mom to ever curse in a PTA meeting (though she might be the first to have thrown candy out of anger, not joy). But then we read this:
Her extreme methods have earned her attention before: The police were called to a Y.M.C.A. in 2007 when she absconded with the sprinkles and syrups on a table where members were being served ice cream.
Aw, HELL no. You do not take sprinkles away from an ice-cream-sundae bar while people are waiting in line. That’s just downright un-American.
Update: As a commenter quite rightly points out, Jezebel’s been all over this lady for years. And she is not, in any way, someone on whose side we would like to appear — with or without the sprinkles.
Mother’s Fight Against Junk Food Puts a School on Edge [NYT]
