Unpredictable. Unfocused. Just like life.

The subject of Monday's debate in USA Today was childhood obesity. The opposing view suggests that today's parents are powerless against junk food marketers advertising to their children:

Junk-food marketers are waging a full-frontal assault on American families and kids' health. Companies spend about $10 billion annually convincing kids to want sugary cereals, fatty snacks and every manner of high-cal, low-nutrient, factory-spun junk food.

Their marketing is designed to convince toddlers and 'tweens alike that parents are wrong and that junk-food spokescharacters such as SpongeBob SquarePants are right. Many parents are sick and tired of having the nutritional rug pulled out from under them.

When I was a kid we were bombarded constantly by ads for toys and junk food. My parents had a different way of handling it. They said NO. Yet we survived. Oh we had the odd box of Count Chocula cereal as a treat now and then, but it certainly wasn't the norm. My wife and I raised our two sons the same way. They didn't get everything they wanted, but I think they appreciate what they have more.

Yes you can say no to your children. And no they probably won't wind up in therapy.