u/Sethsears

Ok, so I kinda dislike how parents will use the phrase "sugared up" to refer to kids acting crazy, or blame kids running amok at birthday parties and the like on the fact that they had a cupcake (or two, or ten) half an hour prior.

All of this seems to be rooted in the idea that sweet, sugary foods give kids too much energy, because of a basic misunderstanding of what "the body uses sugar to make energy" actually means. If you're a healthy and non-diabetic person, your pancreas controls the uptake of glucose into your body using insulin, to keep it within a stable range. If anything, eating a bunch of rich food might make you a little sleepy because of all the digesting you're doing, but you shouldn't be having marked peaks and crashes based on the amount of food you eat. That's a medical symptom, not a childish quirk.

I know this requires a basic level of biology knowledge, but I feel like it should be fairly apparent to anyone who's ever known a diabetic (which is a lot of people) that the idea of a "sugar rush" doesn't actually make a whole lot of sense. Kids who just had juice and cake are probably running around like maniacs because they're at a party, not because of what they did or didn't eat. If you gave them pizza they'd probably be acting the same way.

There are plenty of scientific studies that have been done on this subject confirming that "sugar rushes" are not a real thing. Here's a study from 2019 indicating no correlation between sugar consumption and elevated mood. There's also a study from 1995 which indicates a strong placebo effect when it comes to the perception of kids as being "sugared up." In that study, two groups of boys aged 5-7 were given a very sweet drink, while supervised by their mothers. One group was told the drink had sugar in it, the other group was told it was a zero-calorie sweetener. The mothers then played with their sons and were asked to rate their level of hyperactivity. The sugar group was rated as significantly more hyper than the non-sugar group. But the kicker was that both groups were given a zero-calorie sweetener, indicating that the sugar group was only seen as more hyper because the mothers expected sugar to make their sons act up.

Another thing to consider is that maybe your kid is bouncing off the walls because they drank a bunch of caffeine in the soda they've been drinking? Most canned soda contains around 30-50 mgs of caffeine per can, while an 8oz cup of coffee is around 80-100 mgs of caffeine. So if your kid slammed four cans of Dr. Pepper and is now climbing the walls, it's probably because they just drank the equivalent of two cups of coffee, not because of the sugar content in the drinks.

So I work retail, and I'm not going to go too in-depth because I don't want to be too identifying, but my job involves clothing, and sometimes I work the dressing rooms. This entails sitting near the dressing rooms, managing the line, and collecting items that people don't want. There is a rack with a large sign next to it that says "return unwanted items here," but people don't read signs, so I'll say, "I hope you found everything ok! I can take anything you don't want."

Most of the time, this is fine. Customers will hand me items they don't want, I put them on the return rack, and the line moves smoothly. But I feel like every shift, I get people who say, "It's cool, I know where it goes! I can put it back," and start walking away from me. I know they want to help me, and that's admirable, but the problem is that they actually don't know where it goes. They never know where it goes. I have yet to see a customer stick an item back on the rack in the place where it ought to be. Skirts end up in the pants section. An XL sweater gets put into the small shirt section. The dress section always looks like a tornado came through. And I know that this sounds super nitpicky, but it is literally my job to keep these things straight.

The thing is, the only reason why this is a pet peeve is simply because every single person who won't just hand me the items acts like they're doing this to be helpful, even as they actively resist the instructions that I'm giving them. It's nice that they want to help, but if I'm saying, "Please just hand me the item," then the most helpful thing to do is to do that. Sometimes, they'll actually argue about it, doubling down on, "No! It's ok! I know exactly where I got it! I'll put it back myself!"

If you really want to help employees, then just follow their instructions. Don't argue about their instructions as you try to "help" them. If you went into a restaurant and started cooking your own food, you wouldn't be doing the employees a favor. If you go to a library and stick all your books back on the shelf yourself, you wouldn't be making things easier for the librarians. If you really want to be helpful, then read any signs if signs are present, follow employee instructions if possible, and ask questions if you have them. There's usually a reason why procedures exist, that's all.