Parents Please Wake Up

Lucia_Armstrong1973

What I don't understand is people saying that fast food is cheaper. I grew up the youngest of six kids, on just Dad's income as a mechanic. I never felt like we were "poor" (we were, but my folks were good at stretching dollars) but there's now way we could have afforded McDonalds or pizza at every meal. In fact, on those rare occasions we had McD's, my Dad would go to the drive thru and get burgers, while Mom stayed home with us and cooked her own fries. A couple potatoes, or even a big bag of Oreida, is a lot cheaper than eight small fries! Not to mention that a gallon of KoolAid is way way way cheaper than eight soft drinks. For that matter, homemade burgers are a lot less expensive than even dollar menu burgers, and way tastier now that I'm not a dumb kid. But it was a special treat for us to get McDonalds, and they gave in once in a while.

Just about all the meals I cook for my husband and myself cost around $5 for the two of us. You can get a lot of meals out of a Big Pack of chicken breast ($1.99/pound on sale), a bag of mixed frozen veggies ($1.79 for 16oz bag for store brand) and box of dry pasta or rice ($.99 for 16oz on sale or store brand). Add some kind of sauce/marinade for flavor, and you have a balanced tasty and FILLING meal. On the other hand, if we each got a burger, fry and drink from the dollar menu, we'd be talking $6 and I know damn well neither one of us would be satisfied.

yep have to agree with you! there is noway could be able to afford fast food most nites. you sound like me can make a good meal out of a few pounds i also love the task of trying to be inventive with my meals and getting it under a certain amount but that could be just me :laugh:

This is assuming you don't have to catch the bus to the grocery store, and pay a jitney to drive you home with said groceries. You also left out the price of "some kind of sauce". 5.00 at the market is fine for two people, but what about when there's a third, fourth or fifth someone?

Also, yes, when we were growing up McDonald's was much more expensive. No dollar menu!

vim_n_vigor

I understand your passion about this, and agree that it's a huge problem. I try to keep in mind that people are working with the only means they have - which in many cases, isn't much. Many are poorly educated and just downright poor. They're focused on keeping their children full, not nourished. A child's education includes very little on nutrition, and adults certainly are not educated on it. And even if this education did exist, it doesn't help kids in inner-cities who have little to no access to vegetables and whole grains.

Not everyone lives a good life. I grew up living in other people's bedrooms or on their couches for a period. Do you (general, not directed to one person) think my mom was worried about my nutrition? She worked 2-3 jobs sometimes and bought me fast food so she could have dinner with me before running off to her next job. She bought me more fast food when we were cut off of food stamps as well, when her income went up. It's cheap to feed many people from the Dollar Menu. Sad but true.

- lack of formal education on nutrition
- lack of resources or access to healthier foods
- lack of time/money

Things to consider when we see the state of our children's health today. That, to me, is sadder than watching a kid inhale his 5th Happy Meal that week.

Thanks for this. You said it way better than I could have. I feel like when people make posts like this they almost always leave out the scenario of the parents who are doing the best they can and either can't afford or lack knowledge about proper nutrition/health. A disproportionate number of children with weight problems actually come from families like this. I was one of the luckier ones, but I grew up with so many people who weren't, and what I learned is that it's a problem way bigger than anything that can be solved by telling parents to "wake up."

Of course there are many factors that play into this, and the reasons for each family to choose the foods they do. There are people that are 'stuck'. They don't have the time and money for shopping, preparing, etc. The 'solutions' for these families are definitely more in depth than saying wake up and change. There are many families though that either don't know better or don't care about what they are eating and feeding their children. There is some denial in many families too I think. Then there is how the foods and drinks are packaged and marketed. When high calorie sugary drinks are being marketed as healthy, and all sorts of boxed foods are labeled whole grain and low fat, etc (think children's high sugar cereal, crackers, snacks, etc). Children do develop life long habits based on how they grow up in their families. Regardless if you are 18 or 40 and out of your parents' house, the effects of your childhood are with you forever. What you do with that is up to you, but it will always influence you, like it or not.

Want2weigh165

Although you make some very good points, I think a lot of the problem is the fact that many parents are struggling financially. I am one of them. A single mom, laid off, no food stamps to rely on like some others I am trying to live off of what I have saved. So at times me and my two year old son eat hotdogs mixed with pork n beans and broccoli on the side, less than a three dollar meal for several days b/c my budget is so tight. Even fast foods, sometimes we can split a double cheeseburger and small fries for two bucks. I'd love to have a lot of money to be able to cook and afford fresh fruits and veggies, chicken breast (it's like six bucks a bag!) etc. but for now I know we are eating high sodium foods, but we drink plenty of water and pray that my 25 dollar budget per week can increase soon!

silhouettes

What I don't understand is people saying that fast food is cheaper. I grew up the youngest of six kids, on just Dad's income as a mechanic. I never felt like we were "poor" (we were, but my folks were good at stretching dollars) but there's now way we could have afforded McDonalds or pizza at every meal. In fact, on those rare occasions we had McD's, my Dad would go to the drive thru and get burgers, while Mom stayed home with us and cooked her own fries. A couple potatoes, or even a big bag of Oreida, is a lot cheaper than eight small fries! Not to mention that a gallon of KoolAid is way way way cheaper than eight soft drinks. For that matter, homemade burgers are a lot less expensive than even dollar menu burgers, and way tastier now that I'm not a dumb kid. But it was a special treat for us to get McDonalds, and they gave in once in a while.

Just about all the meals I cook for my husband and myself cost around $5 for the two of us. You can get a lot of meals out of a Big Pack of chicken breast ($1.99/pound on sale), a bag of mixed frozen veggies ($1.79 for 16oz bag for store brand) and box of dry pasta or rice ($.99 for 16oz on sale or store brand). Add some kind of sauce/marinade for flavor, and you have a balanced tasty and FILLING meal. On the other hand, if we each got a burger, fry and drink from the dollar menu, we'd be talking $6 and I know damn well neither one of us would be satisfied.

Fast food is cheaper than cooking at home if you have 2 or less people to feed, 2 Double Cheeseburgers and 2 Fries are only $4, or used to be. not defending anyone, just saying.

bcattoes

Young or old we eat what we want. Filling the refrig with fruits, vegs, low fat whatever, Isn't going to stop school trading and just plain not eating. How healthy is not eating at all? Children are influenced more out of the house then in. It's called fitting in or finding persons like themselves. At any age we can decide when we want to control how much we eat 14 or 40. Blaming other people for our own choices is like saying we are not in control of ourselves. "Only I can hurt me, should I choice". Power, will and choice are ours to control.

LOL I guess we'll have to agree to disagree then. I think parents play a HUGE role in how there children eat. Yes, they may not eat the most nutritiousness stuff when they are around, but parents still control what goes on the dinner table and what they serve them for breakfast, snacks, etc. And when a parent teaches a child about good nutrition and teaches a kid to make healthy food choices it has lasting effects.

I agree. At least it worked for me. I taught my girls that eating healthy foods was important. Snacks and other unhealthy foods are great on occasion, but most of your meals should healthy. I was a poor single mother of two often working 2 jobs but I still prepared healthy meals most days. They are both in their 30's now, are both healthy and neither has ever been overweight. My youngest is now raising her son in the same way. When my grandson was 3 his favorite meal was baked mauhi mauhi and whole wheat couscous with mixed vegetables. Sure he loves cookies and pizza and Taco Bell, but he also loves tofu and carrots and apples and peas (his favorite). And he's rarely sick.

Want2weigh165

Well I have to be one of the few who TOTALLY AGREE WITH YOU. When I married my bodybuilder husband, he was super healthy (still is, of course). I still don't eat as healthy as he does, but at least I don't eat junk all the time or eat fast food (hardly ever). We vowed that our chidren would BE TAUGHT...as PARENTS SHOULD DO...what's healthy, what's not, how much to eat, when to STOP, and staying active and exercising daily (even if it's just for a bit).

Our daughter is the healthiest child in her class at school...but we don't buy her the "easy" school lunches (which would save me so much time). I make her lunch every single night for school the next day, and you can be darn sure that it's VERY healthy...but also VERY good-tasting. I've been doing this every single day of her life since she was born...starting around 12 months, while she was still exclusively breastfeeding. She self-weaned at about 20 months of age, so she's had a "homemade lunch" (haha, literally!) since the day she was born.

And I wouldn't have done it any other way.

PARENTS...wake up. You are giving your children a death-sentence. They are learning from YOU. They want to be like YOU. They want to please YOU. Give them a positive role-model to look up to...you're #1 in their book!

how can you sit here and assume that these parents need to wake up and accuse them of giving the children they love a death sentence????? some parents CANT afford to buy the expensive foods and single parents who have to work may not have the time to prepare gourmet foods you and your bodybuilder husband can afford. shame on you for making assumptions. Instead of complaining next time you see someone at the grocery store while you are stocking up on your healthy foods and they are strugglilng to buy the cheaper foods so their kids they love can survive, throw them some money and help them out so you can stop feeling the need to accuse parents of giving their kids a death sentence for money they may not have

lizgreenhill

I Dont buy junk food for my house. There is no chips, pop, candy, gummy anything, koolaid on occasion, and we do not eat fast food ever. My son is 5 he weighs 55lbs and hes 4ft tall. he doesnt have fat anywhere on his body, and im sure he can out eat anyone i know and he doesnt get fat. He is extremely active and i plan on keeping it that way. When he wants a snack he i tell him to eat some yogurt or eat some type of fruit and he loves it. I think parents need to quit being so lazy and start making home cooked meals instead of going out and shoving grease down their kids throats. I really feel bad for the kids that have to grow up with that kind of lifestyle because of their parents/guardians, its truly sad.

cheekydeeky

i think for me the wake up call was when my teenager had bloodwork and she had high cholesterol. within 6 months of not eating burger king anymore, her bloodwork came back normal and healthy. that's all the evidence i needed.... we are now a healthy and happy family.

d2footballJRC

I would argue that its not the food thats making children fat, its the lack of activity. I ate fast food, pizza etc.. growing up, pretty regularly but I played a lot of sports and ran around the neighborhood with friends. I was a skinny kid. I didnt get over weight until I got married, had kids and started working a job where I sat on my butt all day. Kids nowadays dont go outside, they dont ride around the neighborhood on their bikes. They sit in front of a tv and play X Box. When I was a kid I would wake up on Saturday morning and eat breakfast and my dad would say "go outside and play" I would go outside till lunch, then back out till dinner then back out till street lights came on. That doesnt happen now. Kids dont even walk around mow lawns anymore. adults do.

This... I don't always eat clean or healthy. it comes down to activity. When I was a kid wasn't fat either, I was always out side running around with friends, wasn't til college and computers and sitting at a desk job til I really blew up in size. Activity is just as important as the food we put in our body. I absolutely hate it when people say weight loss is 85% diet, 15% exercise.

I'd say it's 50% diet, 50% exercise. I truly feel that if you don't learn to move and exercise while you may lose the weight on the diet but down the road you'll be right back to were you started. Now that I finally started this trip and truly doing it for myself, I will never go back. I've accepted that exercise will have to be part of my life, and believe it or not I now enjoy it.

Add in to the OP there are much worse things going on at home then someone feeding their kids fast food.. Pure neglect, abuse, alcoholism, or lack of anything that even seems like care or a parental image is more damaging to those kids then the food. Food and bad habits can be broken.. Abuse and neglect leave far deeper scars.

Lastly OP, Right now you are in what is called the weight loss high. It's like a relationship,fresh, full of energy and life. I'll be curious to see if the Zeal is still there in the end. This is a life style change and if you can have this same zeal when you've completed your diet then you'll be a very effective advocate for this.

I just don't like how people blame their parents for their transgressions. Are you telling me as you went through school and life until recently you never knew what you were eating was wrong? At least at my school, we had health class and physical education that we talked about this stuff. I don't think blame should be placed fully on the parents.

silhouettes

I would argue that its not the food thats making children fat, its the lack of activity. I ate fast food, pizza etc.. growing up, pretty regularly but I played a lot of sports and ran around the neighborhood with friends. I was a skinny kid. I didnt get over weight until I got married, had kids and started working a job where I sat on my butt all day. Kids nowadays dont go outside, they dont ride around the neighborhood on their bikes. They sit in front of a tv and play X Box. When I was a kid I would wake up on Saturday morning and eat breakfast and my dad would say "go outside and play" I would go outside till lunch, then back out till dinner then back out till street lights came on. That doesnt happen now. Kids dont even walk around mow lawns anymore. adults do.

That's true in part, but when I was younger, I was outside all day after school until dinner time... walking and playing.

But due to my horrible diet I mentioned a few posts again I was always overweight. I guess this has to do with your body type and how you digest more than anything.

bcattoes

Fast food is cheaper than cooking at home if you have 2 or less people to feed, 2 Double Cheeseburgers and 2 Fries are only $4, or used to be. not defending anyone, just saying.

it would cost less than $4 to make 2 cheeseburgers at home, and they could have less fat, more veggie toppings, and the burgers would be thicker. Sure, you'd have leftover buns which can be frozen for later, and you'd have leftover cheese to use in other dishes, but the cost of just those 2 burgers and fries would be less.

And you could subtract the gas $ spent driving to get the fast food, unless you never go to the grocery store for other things, but you know you do.

pandabear_

I love how people blame so much on there child hood when they have been out of it for so long. If you are over 18 and you are on this site worry about yourself take responsiblity for your own actions and move on

That's exactly what I thought!

And blaming your weight gain is not going to help your loss. Just focus on a goal instead of blaming. Blaming never helps anyone!

PepeGreggerton

I disagree that fast food is cheaper.

andrejjorje

It starts with education, in my opinion. The vast majority of people don't honestly know enough about nutrition to create a truly healthy diet for their children. Look at the forum posts on this site (a place where people are actively working at it) for how wide ranging and at times far-fetched the claims are. Even people who are educated on the subject (at least the ones I respect) fully admit that a lot is still unknown in this area.

Some things are easier than others, granted, but if people don't have the full picture they end up making a lot of mistakes anyway even with good intentions.

This .....

atsteele

also, the opposite is not the best way.
I grew up fighting over sweets with my older brother, because our mom never bought them to us, she didn't want us to get fat and ruin our teeth.
When we got them as present we would always fight about who got more...
So i became selfish and when i'm eating chocolate or something it's like i'm afraid my brother is going to eat it instead, and there will be no chocolate left for me.
This is why I gained weight.
Now that i'm older and i'm living alone, i make all the food decisions by myself, i can have all the junk food i want... but still there's that "child nature" in me.
of course, children like sweets, but making them available will maybe make children crave them less... and not care about the candy drawer.
oh and by the way, my brother is overweight now too, the reason i'm slim is that i'm watching what i eat.
so it affected both of us.

My parents didn't allow sweets but on rare occasion as well. No sugar cereals, no kool aid, no cookies or chips. Only maybe on a birthday or a holiday. And I might have WANTED to eat junk food more often but it wasn't available. As a kid, I really enjoyed eating and enjoyed a variety of foods. And as adults only one of us four kids is overweight and that's only because he chooses to be sedentary. As an adult I see that my mom made a lot of sense: what's not available doesn't get eaten, and when you are hungry at mealtime, you end up eating what is nutritious and healthy. I might have more goodies in my house than my mother did, but I really limit how much they are allowed to partake. And in reality, I could probably remove all the junk and they wouldn't be scarred in any way and probably eat even better than they do now.

PBJunky

Fast food is cheaper than cooking at home if you have 2 or less people to feed, 2 Double Cheeseburgers and 2 Fries are only $4, or used to be. not defending anyone, just saying.

it would cost less than $4 to make 2 cheeseburgers at home, and they could have less fat, more veggie toppings, and the burgers would be thicker. Sure, you'd have leftover buns which can be frozen for later, and you'd have leftover cheese to use in other dishes, but the cost of just those 2 burgers and fries would be less.

And you could subtract the gas $ spent driving to get the fast food, unless you never go to the grocery store for other things, but you know you do.

Seriously you can make burgers for $4? Bloody hell our food is damn expensive on this side, decent patties would cost you $7.5 and that excludes the toppings, buns and basting

brittanyleigh05

Hi

My childrens favourite meals are cod fillets baked with a sprinkle of parmesan served with broccili and baked potatoes, or a nice rare steak.

We taught them from birth that fast food is ok for a treat but they hate Mcdonalds (apart form the shakes) so if they are naughty we threaten to take them there for dinner lol

I have always advocated that no food is 'bad' as that leads to issues but everything in moderation. They both have a very heatlhy attitude to food as nothing has been denied them but both would choose strawberries or satsumas over sweets and chocolate so we must have done something right.

They are boys aged 9 and 11.
martyxx

that is awesome! i babysat for a family who has 5 children, and they were always the same way. their kids love fruit and normally would rather have fruit than candy. however, they do love some chick-fil-a.

baypathgradLyns

I am very conscious of the way I feed my children (5 & 8) because I want them to be as healthy as possible and I don't want them to develop bad habits that they struggle with in adulthood (like myself). I write a blog (now more of a facebook page) that gives other parents and idea of how easy and affordable it is to provide a healthy diet for their kiddos, and how kids don't have to be picky eaters...we usually make them that way!

http://www.facebook.com/whataremykidseating

Can I just say WOW!!! this is amazing what you are doing on FB!!! way to set an example

twynzmom

and parents need to get their kids out of the house and into sports and exercise as well

silhouettes

I said I wasn't defending anyone, but to make 2 healthy hamburgers and 2 healthy fries at home there is no WAY it's less than $4.

My 93 percent hamburger alone costs $4, my buns over $2, cheese over $2-3 becuase you can't just buy one piece and fries are $2-$3 a bag.

Cheap buns that aren't healthy are maybe a $1, but hamburger is still $2-3 for a pound of 73 percent around here, and then there is the cheese and fries again.

I don't eat Mcdonalds anymore or their cheeseburgers and fries, they probably raised the price since I got them last, the $4 was when I went last.

I'm just saying from the view of me, how struggles with money and staying healthy, I know the prices of food at the grocery store around here and they are ridiculous!!!!

And yes, when we buy the 93 percent pound of $4 hamburger, it is all eaten, none left to be frozen.

EDIT: and don't forget the price of tomato's, lettace, ketchup, mustard, onion, and seasonings (who eats hamburgers without some kind of season?) if you need them. I don't have spare tomato's and lettuce in my refridgerator most of the time.. I know I should, but I just don't, we use all we buy for what it's bought for.