www.npr.org/2012/01/09/144799538/controversy-swirls-around-harsh-anti-obesity-ads
Now believe it or not I actually had to stop and ponder whether or not I would do this blog. Some of you might find it hard to believe since as one friend likes to point out, I greatly enjoy poking things with sticks to see what happens. In this case I had to think about this blog and it's tone because I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was really going to piss people off including people I consider friends. In the end, my sense of honesty and that damned stick won out, so here we go.
Anyone who hasn't had their heads stuck in concrete over the past decade knows that there is a terrible plague effecting our kids today. It causes them to suffer illnesses that used to be (with some exceptions) reserved for adults. Children as young as 7 or 8 are experiencing the sorrows of Hypertension, Joint Replacement and Diabetes on a scale that is truly mind boggling. The plague on you children is Obesity.
Anywhere you go in any town or city in America, you can see it. Very young children who weigh far too much. 9, 10, 11 year old kids that weigh 50 or more pounds over the weight they should. Every day the numbers just keep on growing. People whine and gripe and try to find the source of this scourge. They blame School Lunches and demand better quality foods served. ( I support this one) They whine about junk food being far to easy to get. (Which it is) They even blame TV and Movies for making their kids fat. (Okay, don't get that one.) And I will admit that these (well except for the last one) are all contributing factors. However not many people want to comment on the real reason kids are obese. Well, I am about to so get ready to yell.
If your kid is obese. If your son or daughter weighs far too much then it is YOUR fault. Unless your kid lives by themselves in a magic kingdom where Parents need not apply, you are responsible for them being overweight and sick because of it. Like I said earlier, all of the things I listed are factors in childhood obesity, but they are only factors. Parents who sit across from obese children and whine about how they have no idea how little Suzy got that way need to look no further than themselves.
I can hear people yelling now saying "Kids eat too much junk food and don't eat enough healthy meals." I will sagely nod and reply, "Maybe but whose fault is that?" If your kid eats too much junk food and not enough healthy meals then it is your responsibility to make them change. If school lunches pack to much fat and calories into their meals, serve healthier meals at home. If your kid eats to much junk, fix them healthier snacks at home.
One of the main complaints I have heard is that "My kid doesn't get enough exercise, they sit around all day playing video games or surfing the web." If your kid doesn't get enough exercise, make them. Throw them out of the house, make them go play ball and keep an eye on them to make sure they actually do it. In short, be a parent.
Now I could go into long tirades over how things were different when I was a kid growing up in LA (Lower Alabama) but that wouldn't be completely fair. Forgetting the fact that food was relatively scarce so obesity wasn't even an issue, we worked after school in the yard, garden etc and when we got done with that we tended to play till dark. Any excess calories we might have picked up were easily burned off. So I will leave the usual Geezer talk off for this piece.
In the end, we are left with two simple facts. America's kids are getting fatter and fatter and Something has to be done about it. I agree that healthier meals should be served in schools and I agree that a kid's access to junk food should be controlled, but the main thing we have to change is ourselves. Parents need to get up off their butts and make their kids live healthier, eat healthier and live healthier. This is their responsibility, not the schools' and the government's.
GET INVOLVED, CHANGE THEIR LIVES
Okay, the yelling may now commence.
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