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My friend is a Mom of 3 boys and was talking about soccer recently. She said the parents were stressing that the snacks provided at practice and games should always be healthy. And she said "why can't they play soccer for an hour WITHOUT snacks?". People tend to feed their children 24 hours a day and it starts with a constant bowl of cheerios or goldfish as soon as they can eat. It already drives me crazy that people can't get through a 40 minute class or short playdate without pulling out some kind of snack or milk cup.
Too many parents are stressed out and too tired to cook a healthy meal so they stop at McDonald's on the way home or order a pizza. Then there are the kids who watch TV or play video games from the time they get home from school till they go to bed. When I was in school in the 70's it was rare to have a fat kid in the entire school, now it's a common sight.
Parents are definitely to blame when you see an overweight child in most cases. The kids are going to eat what is put in front of them and I agree if you see a chubby kid in most cases one of the parents, if not both are fat also. They are passing their bad eating habits onto their children who will pass those bad habits onto their kids. I see it with my 7 year old granddaughter (who lives with her other grandparents most of the time) who only eats mac & cheese, hot dogs, lunchables and other garbage. Thankfully she loves fruit, although she won't eat any vegetables. Her school stresses fitness so she is active and stays slim.
Even though I worked part of the time when my kids were young, we sat down for dinner every night. I cooked healthy foods and once a week we would have a pizza. Their friends would tell them that they never sat down for a meal with their family. I found that very sad. We never had chips and junk in the house. They would have a couple of cookies with some milk when they came home for school but that was the extent of sweets. To this day they both love most vegetables and one will never eat any dessert, he just doesn't care for it.
They rode their bikes, played outside with their friends and were active. My kids are now 29 & 31 and one joined a gym to put on weight as he was considered "underweight".
Parents need to set an example of healthy eating and stress more activity.
Yay! More fat shaming and with the added twist of parent blaming!
I am naturally fit, it is a genetic gift from my dad (thanks dad), I eat ok but not great (my breakfast today was linder cookies and an orange juice), I am active but never go to the gym. Meanwhile my college room mate was a three season athlete who worked out daily with the team, she always ate right and never even participated in our thrice weekly pizza binges. She has always been overweight, and now as an adult and can't work out for hours a day is probably technically obese. She has always taken better care of her diet and exercise than I do. But looking at us, she would be fat shamed for "not taking care of herself" and I would be presumed to be careful about what I eat and how often I exercise. That is a mistake.
People are widely variable, height, skin tone, intelligence, reactions to medications, allergies, whatever, but if someone is not slender they are presumed to be lazy, slobs who choose to eat mcdonalds for every meal.
And now, we are going to blame parents if their kids are chunky. My daughter was one of those kids who would get pudgy and then grow 2 inches and be her normal slim self again. But my grandmother decided it was not ok (because she was a girl) that when she was going from a size 8 to a 10 that it must be because she was eating like a pig and I was to blame. Despite her baby fat periods of time, she is now 22, nearly 6' and is very healthy.
Stop bugging kids about their weight, take them outside to play, and for goodness sake stop blaming parents for everything even other people's shapes. Ugh.
Fat parents are usually always to blame for fat children. They set the example by instilling poor eating and dietary habits to thier kids.
Lazy parents can be blamed as well. These are the parents who instead of preparing a wholesome meal for their kids, prefer to head to McDonalds for instand Happy Meals for the kids.
This is a very simplistic approach to the issue. On the one hand, healthy eating is EXPENSIVE. Eating the processed food is way cheaper than eating fresh produce and lean meat. Many people don't know how to braise tough meat and skim the fat to get similar results to lean meat. It takes smarts and creativity to eat healthily on a budget. Yes, there are lazy people. And all manner of bad examples of stuff. But I don't think lazy is systemic. I think lack of education, poor availability of accessible healthy options...
As for exercise, it has become a cultural weirdness. Once upon a time, not getting exercise was not an option. Survival required exercise. High calorie food supported that work and was necessary. Now we sit on butt all day and then have to do exercise as some kind of separate activity. When we were homeschooling, my kids hated worksheets and tests. So we would do the necessary ones at the nearby bike path. One worksheet = one lap around the bike path. (It is a really short bike path.) We built these kinds of activities into our days. At school PE is just one of the classes among many. In elementary here, it was once a week. And they would cancel recess when it was cold. HELLO??!! We live in New England. It gets cold here. Weenie, buy a jacket and go outside and get some vitamin B!
Some kids are naturally 'big boned' with a big appetite so in certain cases you cannot blame the parents. However, as a parent myself, you need to teach your child to make good food choices, eat well yourself to demonstrate proper eating habits and simply not buy crap. Yes, it's harder to control when they go off to school and start hanging out without you there all the time, but kids do tend to mimick behavior they see at home. So if mom and dad take them to McDonalds regularly or they eat hot dogs and cake all the time, they will think its normal and likely do the same until perhaps one day when they grow up and realize its not and then blame their parents for their obesity and health issues.
Some kids are naturally 'big boned' with a big appetite so in certain cases you cannot blame the parents. However, as a parent myself, you need to teach your child to make good food choices, eat well yourself to demonstrate proper eating habits and simply not buy crap. Yes, it's harder to control when they go off to school and start hanging out without you there all the time, but kids do tend to mimick behavior they see at home. So if mom and dad take them to McDonalds regularly or they eat hot dogs and cake all the time, they will think its normal and likely do the same until perhaps one day when they grow up and realize its not and then blame their parents for their obesity and health issues.
I teach high school students. The vast majority of them eat like crap. Fast food, soda, whatever and most of them do not have a weight issue. One of my kids wanted to go to Coast Guard Academy and was struggling to meet the weight guidelines even though he passed the PRT with flying colors. He had to eat "rabbit food" to loose the 50 pounds he ended up dropping while his naturally lucky friends literally ate fast food everyday after school as a snack.
What made the difference for him was not people explaining that bad food is bad (really what chubby person doesn't know that) but one of his buddies was getting read for USNA and decided to make the switch with him. His friend didn't need to change his diet but he stepped up and helped this young man make this change instead of just lecture him. It was a lesson I have tried to learn well too. My best friend (who is overweight despite doing everything "right) had her birthday at a winery recently, and instead of goign the whole baked brie or other yummy cheese (which I can eat all day with no ill effects) I brought veggies, yogurt dip and grilled kabobs. I can tell she was glad to have someone else skip out on the yummy stuff with her.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - British researchers who tried to show why overweight mothers tend to have overweight children said on Monday they had filled in one small piece of the puzzle.
Moderation. I grew up in the 50's with TV Dinners, Twinkies, etc. Italian heritage with a lot of pasta. Yeah, my family cooked all the time and Mom was constantly baking, but I do not think I ever had a salad or meatless dinner as a child. Didn't like most of my dinners, whether my parents did or not. So you cannot blame it solely on parents alone. All skinny me ever heard growing up was MANGA! Don't you feed this kid?
I tried to strike a balance with my own kids. No, I did not forbid junk food snacks totally but I did draw limits on it. You finish it (small amount) and you are not getting more until next week. If kids are active with lots of after school activities like sports, they aren't home doing nothing but sitting and eating. I have always cooked my own dinners from scratch, exception being when we were traveling on the road for sports games. Yes, I made dinner salads and meatless dinners for my own kids a good 20 years ago. Balance and moderation. I would never forbid them to eat pizza or lasagna but not on a constant basis.
If you don't buy crap, then your kids can't eat crap - at least at home, anyway.
Those parents who feed themselves and their children high-calorie and unhealthy food, are directly responsible if those children (and maybe their children, also) become fat adults.
Is it okay to be fat? Is it an alternative lifestyle that should not be criticized? Not according to almost all health-care providers. Even a few pounds of extra fat that is carried for long periods of time, may increase the likelihood of diabetes, arthritis and heart conditions.
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