Overweight kids- Who's to blame

taunto

In the absence of a real medical condition, it is 100% the parents.

I am a father. I take responsibility for my daughters. Period. The only person I share responsibility with for ultimate success or failure of our children, good, or bad, is my wife.

Yes, there are outside influence on our children, but it is our responsibility to give our children the tools with which to resist the bad (advertising for garbage, bullying, etc.) and be positively influenced by the good (school, sports, etc.).

This!!

MyPureSteez

Remember the good old days when you got in trouble and couldn't go outside and play with your friends?

or you begged your mom to let you stay out just a little bit longer?

or you just came home for 5 mins and your mom said "where you been I haven't seen you all day?

Kid nowadays don't know that feeling - Here's to the old school

I'm getting old

JaneDough_

A while back I saw a photo essay on "What the World Eats".
Quite interesting.

For example:

Japan




Italy



Chad


Mexico


China


Germany



and then you have the................. US......







Disregarding medical conditions it's 100% parent's fault. If your kid is fat it's thanks to you. Not the school, not the daycare BUT YOU.

cargilb

I blame that damn chocolate factory. Capitalism is to blame. You don't see fat kids in soviet Russia.

i blame capitalism too.

lildee55

I buy the groceries in my house. If the house isn't full of cakes and chips and things, they can't eat it. Problem pretty much solves itself. And TV/video games or not, I've never had a problem getting my son to go out and run through the woods with the neighborhood kids playing games and such. Maybe it's different for some.

CrazyTrackLady

partly parents and partly schools/government!

Nope. Theres no partly. Its fully parents. If your school doesn't provide healthy foods and keeps pushing high calories junk foods then talk to them. Many communities are now doing it and for almost the same cost. The fact that NO parent screamed at the schools when they passed out pizza as a serving of veggies shows that parents are the one neglecting.

As a teacher, I would like to know how what I do is responsible for obese children who come to MY classroom? Am I the one feeding them junk food instead of nutritious food? No. Am I the one who allows them to sit on their butts and play video games, watch TV, text, etc, when they should be outdoors playing and getting exercise? NO.

AND, I would also like to add that I teach HEALTH, and right now I am making a very serious effort to teach these children all about healthy eating, nutrition and the importance of exercise. I'm not harming them, I'm helping them.

IT IS ENTIRELY the fault of the parents AND partially the fault of the pediatricians who refuse to tell the parents their child needs to lose weight, for fear of "offending" the parents.

highervibes

Of course it's the parents' fault.... who else's fault woult it be if there was no medical reason?!

taunto

A while back I saw a photo essay on "What the World Eats".
Quite interesting.

For example:

Japan




Italy



Chad


Mexico


China


Germany



and then you have the................. US......







Disregarding medical conditions it's 100% parent's fault. If your kid is fat it's thanks to you. Not the school, not the daycare BUT YOU.

But the US folks look so much happier with pizza in their hands!

Oh and I feel all giddy that you used my thread! Thank you!

gym_king_carlie

At the end of the day the parent is a guide to a childs life, they should educate them in food. each case is individual though.

onwarddownward

My 8 year old daughter is overweight and I firmly believe it is my fault. We were having pizza once a week, McDonalds entirely way too much, carb loaded, processed dinners every night. It wasn't because I didn't have time to cook, it was because I was lazy. Just plain lazy. She gained weight while I was pregnant (and eating horribly), but she was headed in that direction long before that and I feel horrible that I didn't do something about it sooner. She is starting to get made fun of, and I remember getting bullied at school and how much I hated it. I can't believe that I let my daughter get to the same place I had been.

The only thing I can do now, is fix my mistake.

I just posted a status update about how my kids are adapting well to the new lifestyle change, and I am excited to see results in my daughter as much as I am myself. When they choose fruit over junk, I am elated.

You're doing the right thing. It's important for kids to see that parents can make mistakes, too and that we step up and correct them.

Jan

smudger_24

We actually discussed this in the office at work yesterday, I blame the parents. There was a girl in the news who was 14 years old and a size 24 weighing 24 stone. To me it is no different than not feeding your child enough and them starving them, it is a form of abuse to over feed them and you are not caring for your child properly.

ms_leanne

I saw a scientific programme on TV (in the UK) which showed an experiment started 15 years ago where there was a strong correlation between what and how mothers ate during pregnancy making their children predisposed to obesity.

SToast

I'm pretty sure it's not the fault of schools around here. I've seen the lunch menu and it's pretty dang balanced. Plus, what your kid eats for one meal a day 5 days a week isn't going to outweigh what they eat for the other 16 meals (based on 3 meals a day) during the week.

This is a fast food generation. Made worse by the fact that more and more families have both parents working full time. Who wants to cook dinner after putting in a full day at work? However, this is also a generation of passing the blame. People will blame anyone and anything for their child being overweight. Heaven forbid they take a proactive stance and recognize that maybe what they are doing is not healthy.

I work with a woman who's daughter gets to pick which fast food joint they eat at each night! It blew my mind. I don't even remember eating fast food as a kid. Seriously. I actually had never eaten McDonalds food until 2 years ago (I've still only eaten there 3 times). I just didn't grow up that way. Mom cooked dinner every night, TV time was limited to an hour a day, and we played outside with our friends.

chelseascounter

Parents. Someone has to teach them about nutrition. Kids aren't born craving junk food.

xiamjackie

There are people on here that keep blaming the schools, saying that the schools do not allow them to have enough time to exercise in a day.

If we are trying to teach them healthy habits that they can take with them when they become adults, then they need to learn at an early age how to incorporate exercise into a busy lifestyle. Does your 40 hour a week job allow you 1 hour in the middle of the workday to exercise? Probably not. We, as adults, have to learn how to find an hour out of each busy day (or however long you prefer) to exercise. Starting that mentality early would be helpful. You can't just sit there and blame the schools for your obese child.

And there are strict guidelines now in America for public schools (at least in PA) on what lunches and breakfasts are allowed to be served, especially at the elementary level. They have to meet certain nutritional criteria and blah blah. When I was in high school I would eat two bagels with extra cream cheese every day for lunch. I'd say the push for more nutritional stuff in schools is more today than it ever was.

Mutant13

Every time I see the Mexicsn picture I get hungry. It's so colourful.

It's really great to see parents aknowledging their responsibility on here. The difference between this and the FB discussion is amazing

cargilb

partly parents and partly schools/government!

Nope. Theres no partly. Its fully parents. If your school doesn't provide healthy foods and keeps pushing high calories junk foods then talk to them. Many communities are now doing it and for almost the same cost. The fact that NO parent screamed at the schools when they passed out pizza as a serving of veggies shows that parents are the one neglecting.

As a teacher, I would like to know how what I do is responsible for obese children who come to MY classroom? Am I the one feeding them junk food instead of nutritious food? No. Am I the one who allows them to sit on their butts and play video games, watch TV, text, etc, when they should be outdoors playing and getting exercise? NO.

AND, I would also like to add that I teach HEALTH, and right now I am making a very serious effort to teach these children all about healthy eating, nutrition and the importance of exercise. I'm not harming them, I'm helping them.

IT IS ENTIRELY the fault of the parents AND partially the fault of the pediatricians who refuse to tell the parents their child needs to lose weight, for fear of "offending" the parents.

true, doctors in general are sorely lacking the will to tell people the truth. But, I think this is in part due to the food industry somehow influencing the medical industry as well as the government. don't ask me how. its just too convenient a dynamic not to suspect some influence.

billsica

partly parents and partly schools/government!

Nope. Theres no partly. Its fully parents. If your school doesn't provide healthy foods and keeps pushing high calories junk foods then talk to them. Many communities are now doing it and for almost the same cost. The fact that NO parent screamed at the schools when they passed out pizza as a serving of veggies shows that parents are the one neglecting.

As a teacher, I would like to know how what I do is responsible for obese children who come to MY classroom? Am I the one feeding them junk food instead of nutritious food? No. Am I the one who allows them to sit on their butts and play video games, watch TV, text, etc, when they should be outdoors playing and getting exercise? NO.

AND, I would also like to add that I teach HEALTH, and right now I am making a very serious effort to teach these children all about healthy eating, nutrition and the importance of exercise. I'm not harming them, I'm helping them.

IT IS ENTIRELY the fault of the parents AND partially the fault of the pediatricians who refuse to tell the parents their child needs to lose weight, for fear of "offending" the parents.

Teach, good! wile you are at it, can you PLEASE get on teaching my kids to tie there shoes and not pee on the floor. Really what do you do all day? Maybe another set of common core will make you people shape up. Oh, also my son likes to burp in public, get on that too. Thanks.

BflSaberfan

A while back I saw a photo essay on "What the World Eats".
Quite interesting.

For example:

Japan




Italy



Chad


Mexico


China


Germany



and then you have the................. US......







Disregarding medical conditions it's 100% parent's fault. If your kid is fat it's thanks to you. Not the school, not the daycare BUT YOU.

But the US folks look so much happier with pizza in their hands!

Oh and I feel all giddy that you used my thread! Thank you!

None of these families are overweight so I think this was a poor example but I do agree Americans and obesity is getting out of hand. I've seen more overweight toddlers and children in the last 10 years than I ever have.

cargilb

a topic that is missing here is television commercials. The TV bombards kids with food commercials and I know that food commercials cause people to eat more than they need too. I certainly eat more when i watch networks with advertisements. televised sports is the worst. they advertise the worst food you can eat.