Would you feel bad for this boy?

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245

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  • kr1stadee
    kr1stadee Posts: 1,774 Member
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    Why would I feel bad? Not everyone wants to be healthy and if they ever decide that they want to they can do that too.

    Yeah, that is fine for adults, but they are setting their own child up with bad health habits. I'm gonna hope you just missed the point, and don't think it's fine for parents to do that.

    But if they've grown up with the same bad health habits, they will pass them along because it's the norm to them

    That's my point..... the kid is doomed.

    Unless the kid grows up and learns a better way. I grew up with bad eating habits, and I was always a heavy kid/teen/adult. I'm changing my life and I'm teaching my kids for the better.
    So, doomed for now, yes. Not completely doomed for the future.
  • motown13
    motown13 Posts: 688 Member
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    Hahaha, what?! Spoiled rotten! Wow! I don't have any sympathy.

    If that IS the case, that's the parent's fault, and not the kids fault, wouldn't you agree? But the parents - especially the mom, it seems, have no clue. I think that is what makes me feel bad for the kid. He's a kid. Lots of kids would only eat junk food if left to their own devices.
  • holothuroidea
    holothuroidea Posts: 772 Member
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    I'm so glad my mom never did any of that to me. The only limitations on what I could/couldn't eat were REAL ones, like what was available and what we could afford.

    I believe that children should be allowed to make their own food choices. I really dislike when parents create these artificial boundaries for their kids, more often than not they're based entirely within the parent's own insecurities.
  • Warchortle
    Warchortle Posts: 2,197 Member
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    It's not your job to be policing other people and telling them they're doing it wrong. It's freedom of choice. Looking down on others because of the decisions they've made isn't virtuous at all.
  • holothuroidea
    holothuroidea Posts: 772 Member
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    It's not your job to be policing other people and telling them they're doing it wrong. It's freedom of choice. Looking down on others because of the decisions they've made isn't virtuous at all.

    The lines of "freedom of choice" become significantly blurred when you're making those choices for someone else. That's why parenting decisions fall under this kind of scrutiny.

    When a person makes a decision that can greatly negatively impact another person who is powerless to stop it, is it still virtuous to turn a blind eye?
  • motown13
    motown13 Posts: 688 Member
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    It's not your job to be policing other people and telling them they're doing it wrong. It's freedom of choice. Looking down on others because of the decisions they've made isn't virtuous at all.


    I neither policed them, told them anything, or claimed to be virtuous. My only thinking here is that the kid is in big trouble as he gets older.
  • synthomarsh
    synthomarsh Posts: 189 Member
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    well I think he may have a worse start but doomed? nah eventually we all have to make our own choices regardless of what our parents tell us
  • iLoveMyAR15
    iLoveMyAR15 Posts: 122 Member
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    wow i feel bad for that poor kid, he was doomed from the start
  • LittleMissDover
    LittleMissDover Posts: 820 Member
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    Maybe the child has diabetes? In which case then the drink would mean he couldn't have fruit as then he'd be over his sugars.

    As the parent of a child with an 'invisible disease' I hate people who judge.
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
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    I feel bad for the whole family. Dad may at least have some sense, but not enough to stand up to Mom. Mom seems totally clueless. The boy will suffer the affects of his parents cluelessness for the rest of his life.
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
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    well I think he may have a worse start but doomed? nah eventually we all have to make our own choices regardless of what our parents tell us

    While that's true, the affects of childhood obesity reach into adulthood regardless of adult choices.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    I'm so glad my mom never did any of that to me. The only limitations on what I could/couldn't eat were REAL ones, like what was available and what we could afford.

    I believe that children should be allowed to make their own food choices. I really dislike when parents create these artificial boundaries for their kids, more often than not they're based entirely within the parent's own insecurities.

    I had no limitations. See where that got me. It took me 5 years after I left the house to learn not to have a snack every time I go out, and 18 years not to eat everything I want from the fridge when I want it... I REALLY wish my parents had given me 'artificial boundaries', personally.

    I think the parents are trying, at least. They could just have let him had a big slurpee. I feel really bad for the overweight kids I see though, but I know some have health issues that cause weight too. So I try not to judge too much. But when the parents are clearly overweight too, it's harder.
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
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    Maybe the child has diabetes? In which case then the drink would mean he couldn't have fruit as then he'd be over his sugars.

    As the parent of a child with an 'invisible disease' I hate people who judge.

    What difference would diabetes make unless the child were in crisis and needed sugar ASAP? Fruit is still a wiser source of sugar than a slurpee.
  • Carnivor0us
    Carnivor0us Posts: 1,752 Member
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    Maybe the child has diabetes? In which case then the drink would mean he couldn't have fruit as then he'd be over his sugars.

    As the parent of a child with an 'invisible disease' I hate people who judge.

    What difference would diabetes make unless the child were in crisis and needed sugar ASAP? Fruit is still a wiser source of sugar than a slurpee.

    If the child was having a critical low, like in the 20s for instance, fruit wouldn't be a good choice because the fiber would slow down the absorption of glucose, and people with that low of a blood sugar may not have the wherewithal to chew. My mother is type 1 diabetic, as she gets orange juice (concentrated sugar) or a regular coke if she's having a low, not fruit. So a slurpee IS better than fruit in that situation.
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
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    Maybe the child has diabetes? In which case then the drink would mean he couldn't have fruit as then he'd be over his sugars.

    As the parent of a child with an 'invisible disease' I hate people who judge.

    What difference would diabetes make unless the child were in crisis and needed sugar ASAP? Fruit is still a wiser source of sugar than a slurpee.

    If the child was having a critical low, like in the 20s for instance, fruit wouldn't be a good choice because the fiber would slow down the absorption of glucose, and people with that low of a blood sugar may not have the wherewithal to chew. My mother is type 1 diabetic, as she gets orange juice (concentrated sugar) or a regular coke if she's having a low, not fruit. So a slurpee IS better than fruit in that situation.

    Yeah, not sure if you actually read my post before replying, but you just agreed with me.
  • Arianwyn_T
    Arianwyn_T Posts: 52
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    Why would I feel bad? Not everyone wants to be healthy and if they ever decide that they want to they can do that too.

    You would feel bad because it's a CHILD, and unlike his parents he isn't making an informed decision. You would feel because there's a good chance that his parents' bad decisions will cause him to develop type 2 diabetes, and it won't matter what he decides he wants to do in regards to diet and exercise later in life -- he will never be able to undo that harm. Human beings with empathy feel bad for children whose parents are making bad decisions for them; I suppose you don't feel bad for a toddler whose parents deny her medical treatment for religious reasons either.
  • motown13
    motown13 Posts: 688 Member
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    Maybe the child has diabetes? In which case then the drink would mean he couldn't have fruit as then he'd be over his sugars.

    As the parent of a child with an 'invisible disease' I hate people who judge.

    Since your child has diabetes, would you want them having a Slurpee at all? The thing is all sugar and chemicals. And, LOL, you just judged people who judge.

    EDIT, and of course I don't mean if he or she is suffering from low blood sugar.... and this boy clearly was not. He simply said "I want a Slurpee", or something to that effect. And who even knows if he was diabetic anyway?
  • Arianwyn_T
    Arianwyn_T Posts: 52
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    Maybe the child has diabetes? In which case then the drink would mean he couldn't have fruit as then he'd be over his sugars.

    As the parent of a child with an 'invisible disease' I hate people who judge.

    If the kid has diabetes and they let him have a medium slurpee then they deserve judgement even more.
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
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    Maybe the child has diabetes? In which case then the drink would mean he couldn't have fruit as then he'd be over his sugars.

    As the parent of a child with an 'invisible disease' I hate people who judge.

    Since your child has diabetes, would you want them having a Slurpee at all? The thing is all sugar and chemicals. And, LOL, you just judged people who judge.

    EDIT, and of course I don't mean if he or she is suffering from low blood sugar.... and this boy clearly was not. He simply said "I want a Slurpee", or something to that effect. And who even knows if he was diabetic anyway?

    Yeah, I think it's pretty cliear this was not a crisis. How likely is it that the parents would be giving him the choice of a slurpee now or fruit/pepperoni later if he was in a low blood sugar crisis?
  • holothuroidea
    holothuroidea Posts: 772 Member
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    I had no limitations. See where that got me. It took me 5 years after I left the house to learn not to have a snack every time I go out, and 18 years not to eat everything I want from the fridge when I want it... I REALLY wish my parents had given me 'artificial boundaries', personally.

    I think the parents are trying, at least. They could just have let him had a big slurpee. I feel really bad for the overweight kids I see though, but I know some have health issues that cause weight too. So I try not to judge too much. But when the parents are clearly overweight too, it's harder.

    My guess is that there is more to your story than you are giving here. A lack of artificial limitations on food does not make for bad habits, you had to learn those habits from somewhere.

    I was lucky because I was a thin kid growing up in a thin family with thin habits, but I'll give you my husband's story as well. Like you and me, he also had no limitations on his food choices. He grew up overweight in an obese family with obese habits. Any food left on the table was an insult to his mother. "Leftovers" was a dirty word. Food was love, and the more food you ate, the more loved you were. Any person of a healthy weight was "deathly thin" and "needed some good home cooking'' (me! lol). I remember once I mentioned to his mom that I liked ritz crackers and the next time I came over to her house, she had an entire bowl of ritz crackers out for me and I was expected to eat ALL of them. I learned pretty quick what it meant to be uncomfortably full, which was an experience I never had in my childhood. I gained a lot of weight when I started living with them, weight I'm still trying to loose today.

    No amount of his parents putting artificial limitations on his choices is going to undermine that kind of conditioning. It took him a lot of years of hard work, evaluating his relationship with food and relearning how to eat to loose the weight. The cause of his weight problems was not a lack of limitations, it was an unhealthy relationship with food.

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