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Throat Punch Thursday~ Fat Bottomed Kids Edition

by Deborah Cruz

Throat Punch Thursday~ Strong4Life

Childhood Obesity ~Stop Childhood Obesity! I think we all know how I feel about Childhood Obesity and the obesity epidemic in general. I’m against it because I am for health. I obviously blame the parents because after-all, the parent is the person responsible for dictating what a child eats. Correct? Last I checked, a child does not determine what is put on the table or sent for lunch on their own. We buy the groceries, we cook the food, we do the parenting; the end. That all being said, Georgia’s Strong4Life campaign is out of it’s f*cking collective mind in it’s delivery. Who ever thought it was a good idea to start a campaign to “help” children lose weight by shaming them into it by making them the literal poster children for fat kids? Who is this helpful to?

Childhood Obesity Sucks

But what sucks even more so is giving kids complexes about their weight. Let’s get them outside and get them some activity. Let’s provide better school lunches. Let’s teach parents nutrition. Let’s stop shoving carbs, sweets and juices at our children every time they make a noise. But let’s not put photos, billboards and videos of overweight children all over the state as a reminder to the children , “Hey kid, you’re fat. Stop eating so much. Your parents don’t care about you and just ignore the fact that you weigh 200 pounds at the age of 10.Your parents don’t care and look where it’s gotten you. It’s gotten you obese! Stop eating!”

Childhood Obesity

Parent’s You are Responsible for Childhood Obesity

I don’t like this campaign’s tactics. I feel like exploiting photos of obese children is just mean. If it’s going to be done, let’s place blame where it belongs… on the parents. Let’s add an even bigger photo of the parents of the kid and squarely label it parenting failure. I’m a parent, and I am also a person who has had a lifetime of body issues and I am pretty sure had anyone EVER used my photo on a billboard and said “ignoring this problem is what got us here” I would have promptly thrown myself off of said billboard. I think this campaign is needed ( for sure) but I think the photos of the obese children and labeling them ” a problem” is demeaning. Of course, I realize that childhood obesity is a problem but really it’s a symptom, the real cancer is the lazy parents who don’t want to put any effort into parenting their children. It’s easier to feed them bad food in the car, give into their whining and let them play video games and watch television than it is to be a parent and make unpopular choices, especially if it impedes in their own comfort and requires any exertion on their part.

This week’s throat punch goes to the lazy ass parents who are creating this epidemic of childhood obesity and to the campaign against childhood obesity that exploits obese children by using them as cautionary tales. The idea is good, the execution fails almost as miserably as those lazy parents of these poor kids. What are your thoughts on the childhood obesity epidemic and the parents who sit idly by as their children eat themselves into a self destructive stupor in front of the television?

Childhood Obesity Ends When Active Parenting Begins

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17 comments

Jessica 2012/01/06 - 7:08 am

I have a lot of problems maintaining my oldest’s weight. Because of her autism she is pretty obsessed with food and her meds cause weight gain. It is such a struggle but her only choices for food are healthy ones. If it were any other way I can’t imagine how much she would have gained. Just like taking them to the doctors when they are sick, it’s our responsibility to make sure they have healthy choices when eating.

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Truthful Mommy 2012/01/06 - 7:51 am

Jessica,
See but you have extenuating circumstances. I understand that there are medications and health issues that do in fact come to play in some instances but I am talking more about general population where there is no true reason, other than the parent just making bad choices, that leads to the child being overweight. I also realize that there are some children who, especially once puberty hits, they put on weight and it doesn’t matter what they eat; healthy or not but these are not the parents and children that I am referring to. You are so right, it is our responsibility as parents to teach them, to provide for them, to lead by example and make sure that they are living a healthy lifestyle. It’s hard. It’s a lot of work and I think most people, like you and I, realize that when we have children we have made a commitment to doing that work. Granted sometimes it’s a LOT harder than we could have anticipated but we try to do our best. XO

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Beryl 2012/01/06 - 9:31 am

My seven year old niece is very overweight and my sister works extremely hard to try to monitor her food intake and offer healthy foods. But my niece is too young (and perhaps too stubborn) to understand the consequences of overeating. She will very often sneak extra helpings of otherwise healthy foods as snacks because she thinks she needs something more. My sister spends hours upon hours every day agonizing about how to help this sweet little girl. There definitely are parents out there who don’t care and/or don’t know how to feed their kids, but then there are situations in which the only way to prevent the child from being overweight is to stay with them 24/7, which is unrealistic and damaging in itself.

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Truthful Mommy 2012/01/06 - 1:48 pm

I do realize that there are situations where the parent is doing there best but the child is still overweight. I am not judging the child for being overweight, I just think that in general the childhood obesity situation is more about lazy parenting and that situations like your sister and the previous commentor are the exceptions not the rule. It may be a case by case scenario but there is no way that every child who’s obese has a parent who is working as hard and diligently as your sister is to keep them healthy.Kudos to your sister!

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Tracy 2012/01/06 - 1:55 pm

I totally get why this would piss you off and I don’t understand where or how they got those kids as models for this campaign.

I see kids screaming around the park, sipping on Big Gulps from 7-11 full of sugary pop/soda and I just want to slap their parents.

My son doesn’t crave sugar, I don’t have to fight with him about it because he doesn’t get it as a rule, never has. He actually prefers his veggies over junk food. His sweet cravings are satisfied by apples and carrots.

I think it’s all about providing good nutritional education to parents.

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Roxane 2012/01/06 - 9:25 pm

As a nanny I see this all too often. Parents make the easy choice, chicken nuggets, pizza, gogurts, ect just because kids like them. Now I have one 4 year old little girl who refuses to eat fruits and veggies, binges on carbs and cheese and her parents enable it. It’s of no surprise at her check up that the pedi said she was at “high risk” for obesity in the near future, the mother didn’t bother to flinch. Her daughter now brags about “how big her belly is getting” not understanding the difference between growing up and growing in the waist. It is so infuriating!

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gaylene 2012/01/09 - 1:07 pm

As a mom and former health educator, I agree. People should never blame the kids. They shouldn’t even blame the lunch ladies. Like you said, it should be the parents on the billboards, giving their kids fruit snacks every time someone whines. Like everyone said above, there are special circumstances where weight can’t be controlled, but for the rest of us, we need to act as parents, including the food we put in our kids’ mouths!

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Polish Mama on the Prairie 2012/01/26 - 11:51 am

I agree. I have a struggle with my girls (who are a healthy weight bc I push so hard) because whereas I want to feed them healthy and have them exercising, a particular someone constantly sabotages all of my efforts. It’s all about what the parents do.

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Truthful Mommy 2012/01/26 - 12:17 pm

YOu are so right. we lead by example.

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