A New Form of "Child Abuse"? (Warning: this is a novel!)

I've been meaning to blog about this for awhile now. This is a very sensitive topic but I can't not say anything about it.

It makes me really upset to go out in public and see all these overweight children. No, it makes me really angry. I will follow with a couple of examples here in just a minute. I'm not talking about "chubby" kids who will grow out of their babyfat. I'm talking children who are obese. Now, you may think that I am being very insensitive but that's not the case. I had an obese husband who, at one time, weighed 509 lbs. I know what it's like to live with that kind of problem because I dealt with it with him firsthand.

Overweight adults are one thing. Overweight children are quite another matter. It's one thing to be a grown person and make the decision that, "To hell with it, I'm going to down this whopper and french fries." But when parents have no regard as to what goes in their childrens' mouths, that raises so many red flags in my mind.

Last Friday we were at a football game and there was a family sitting behind us. Mom and son (who was probably close to my oldest son's age, 11)were discussing whether or not the boy could have a snack from the concession stand. The boy is not tiny, by any stretch of the imagination. This is right at kick-off, mind you, and mom says no because they had just eaten before the game. It wasn't too much longer when boy goes to concession with grandma or dad after mom says something to the effect of, "Fine. You can go and get a snack but not a meal item." Boy comes back with an order of nachos. Correct me if I'm wrong, but a container of nachos leans more towards the "meal" items on a concession menu. So pretty much what mom said about what he could have from the concession stand went in one ear and out the other.

Last night, Robert goes to the grocery and sees a boy probably no older than our youngest (he's 6) and Robert speculates that the child probably weighs close to 80-85 lbs. I am not naive enough to realize that in some cases, children suffer from health problems that render them overweight (glandular conditions, etc) but when I see parents loading up their shopping buggy with items like ice cream, chips, cookies, Little Debbie, etc., there's more than likely nothing contributing to their childrens' weight gain other than the carelessness of what the parents are feeding them. In a way, it's like child abuse. And I can venture to guess that those same parents don't emphasize the importance of physical activity.

Granted, I'm not Little Miss Perfect when it comes to what my boys eat, BUT our kitchen is not laden with freely-accessible junk food. They are allowed the occasional dessert after dinner but my boys both enjoy physical activity and are outside quiet a bit. A couple of great books for helping kids to eat more healthy are: Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld and Eat Clean Diet for Family and Kids : Simple Strategies for Lasting Health and Fitness by Tosca Reno.

Alright, I'm off my soapbox.