Anxiety Thing # 5 - Children and Obesity

Previous annoyances have discussed parents forcing children to smoke and parents contributing to children being at risk by not enforcing seat belt rules. This annoyance will continue with the parent / child theme.

Obesity and junk food. Obesity and lack of exercise. Obesity and children. Obesity causes diseases. There is sufficient advertising and information spread about to ensure every parent is aware of the connection between obesity and disease.

It causes me enough anxiety when adults drive themselves to medical disaster with their chosen lifestyle habits; the consumption of junk food being a major component of that drive. As the drive nears the medical disaster destination, the “rescue me” starts.

“I need to see my doctor. Give me drugs. Make me better. How could this happen to me? My great great aunt four times removed had a similar disease so it must run in the family. Give me my pills and let’s go to yukdonanlds. Grab that bag of cheezies on the way out . .. and, oh, and better take a bottle of soda for the drive.”

No wonder our children are obese. Parents just don’t care. They are so self focused. There is no way parents cannot be aware of the information about diet and disease; about the effect junk food has on our children; about the effect lack of exercise has on children’s health and about the escalating childhood disease rate in diseases such as diabetes. Unless the parents happen to be hermits – not many of those in this age of booming communication technology.

These parents tend to blame everybody except themselves. They blame the manufacturer for making the product available – The junk food product wouldn’t be available for long if nobody bought it. They blame the advertising – of course children want what they are told is good. They even blame the children – he wanted it or I had to give it to him to keep him quiet. And there are the parents who use the rationale that “he was so good, I had to give him a treat”. These parents need to learn that a treat every day of the week or several times a day is no longer a treat. It’s greasing the slide to early medical disaster.

There may be one positive note in all of this – if the parent is scoffing down the great amounts of the junk food herself, then by giving it to the child, she does not have to explain to the child why she can have it but not the child. And yes, some parents do hide the junk food in the house so they can eat it when the children are asleep.

I wonder if some parents actually believe they are being good parents by contributing to the onset of childhood diseases by stuffing their children with garbage. Or are they just too lazy or too self focused on their own lives to even care. I know that many parents would scream at me for this perspective – but I believe the screaming would only prove my point. Screaming would move the focus from what the issue really is. I also believe that actions speak louder than words – you can scream all you want but if the child is being primed for disease via junk food, you are filling the role. I also believe that mistreating your child in this fashion should be grounds for child abuse.

So what is your relationship with your child’s diet? How much responsibility are you willing to take when your child comes down with a lifestyle induced disease?