Targeting children for paradigm shift

Outrage has never come more quickly than on the day when someone pointed at something that was not my god and told my two year old son that it was god. That experience made me rethink much of what is done in the name of "children's ministry".

I've seen this most often with Christian groups targeting their programming to children, included of course is some sort of evangelical element and the zinger is that these kids will bring home the message of Jesus to their very "hard to reach" families. But Christians are not the only offenders here. It is conventional wisdom that you have to teach something very early to get true change in the next generation. That same son was also told by his kindergarten teacher that salt is a bad thing to eat.

So, while this method, of "educating" children is perhaps the most efficient way of creating paradigm shift in a community, my question is whether it is moral to do so. I think consent of the parents is certainly in order. But I also want to explore the morality of obtaining that consent by dangling free/reduced services such as food and education as incentives for the parents. Especially when those services are very hard to come by otherwise. Is the phrase "coerced conversion" to strong in this situation?