Schools have supposedly made a huge effort in the past few years to offer healthier food options, but one little food critic says that effort is failing miserably. Eleven-year-old Zachary Maxwell, a fourth grader in New York City, who sounds like a combination of Morgan Spurlock and Jamie Oliver, made a 20-minute documentary highlighting his school's woeful lack of nutritious meals -- and even accused the school of false advertising. After his parents told him that they wanted him to eat school lunches -- considering how great they looked on the school's website -- Zachary argued that the online menus did not depict reality. Then he did what any precocious kid would do these days. He got out his video camera.

Today's dose of what-the-hell from our nation's schools comes to us from Dallas. There the school district has been debating its student dress code. Among their rulings last week were mandates that leggings should not be worn as pants; skirts should be no higher than a girl's fingertips; and boys shouldn't be allowed to wear earrings.

I suppose we could argue the merit of each of those, but it's one policy that the school district overturned that is the most outrageous -- the one that requires students to tuck in their shirts. Staff told the school board they don't think students should be required to do so because it could damage fat kids. I'm not kidding.

Parents, there is some fungus amongus! Researchers found five, FIVE different types of fungus in Capri Sun juice packs. You know, those pouches moms and dads throw into their kids' lunches every day? Fungus. And you thought your kids hated mushrooms ...

The study was prompted when people complained about finding bits of what looked like mold (ew!) in the juice. They were actually mats of fungus, but gross nonetheless. But wait, I've never heard of anyone ever actually getting sick from drinking from one of those juice pouches. Why not?

Once those baby teeth come in, it's not always easy convincing your little one about the importance of brushing. A lot of parents will tell you, it can be a real struggle. But after the hurdle of teaching your child about caring for his precious toddler teeth, your job is far from over. Children miss over 750,000 days of school each year because of dental problems. So as they get older, it's critical to teach them how to maintain a healthy smile into adulthood. Here is what you need to know about caring for your big kid's teeth.

Image via -william/Flickr

I grew up eating bologna sandwiches but now that my thinking about food has evolved -- thank you Fast Food Nation, Morgan Spurlock and Michael Pollan -- I can't even look at a hot dog or a chicken finger. Still, both are often in my shopping cart because they are among the few items my 6-year-old daughters will consistently eat.

Same with sugar. I have read countless articles about how sugar, not fat, is the root of all nutritional evil and my kids eat ice cream or some kind of dessert every night.

They are skinny kids. This is not about weight (for now). But I find myself having a crisis of conscience about the fact that I have different standards for my food than I do for theirs.

I feel for the parents of kids with food allergies. I really do. It must be terrifying living with the possibility that something as simple as a peanut butter sandwich could kill your child. And yet, a mom's suggestion that parents stop taking snacks to the playground, lest her kid get sick, is the latest example of the food allergy community taking things a step too far.

Take mom and author Curtis Sittenfeld (whose books I happen to adore) who opined in Slate this week that parents need to rein in their hungry kids at the park. Her fear, of course, is that her daughter's food allergies will be spiked by some careless kid wiping his PB&J all over the jungle gym.

Sonny Wilson decided to do something stupid one day recently. The 12-year-old hopped onto the back of a truck and "surfed" it as it drove through crowded streets at 30 miles per hour.

He was quite a sight too, laughing and giving a thumbs up when hopping off. Other drivers even took a video of him, and posted him it online, where it went viral. I'm sure he got plenty of high fives from friends for his daring ways, and felt pretty smug about it ... for awhile.

If you have kids then you know that a good, reliable babysitter is really hard to find. Like holy grail kind of hard.

And with no family around, we depend on our babysitter!

But when you live in a neighborhood with tons of kids, it's inevitable that another parent will see your awesome sitter and want to use her (or him) too, which hey, I'm all for sharing. But I've seen sitters get stolen left and right. Talk about uncool.

So here are my tips for making sure your babysitter doesn't think about moving on.