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Why are we, as a country, making our children fat?

By ITgirli ·
And before I get started, I would like to say that while this is an article from America, I will appreciate any and all other members to put in their two cents(or whatever currency you prefer).

How is this happening? Are all the grown pansies who got picked on as a child during recess plotting against our children? Is it some grand scheme to destroy recess forever? I have a few ideas, but I'd really like to just throw this out there and get some feedback.

You know it would have to be something good to bring me back here to start a thread.

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several reasons....

by Jaqui In reply to Why are we, as a country, ...

1) the bleeding heart dipsticks that just see a skinned knee as something to get up in arms to prevent.

2) the hand held, battery power video games

3) fast food

4) changes made that kill discipline, causing kids to throw tantrums until they get what they want.

5) TV

6) windows, and the entire mindset behind it that learning anything or accepting responsability for your screwups are not important values.
[ ever see or hear about microsoft paying for data loss because they ship unsecureable software? ]

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oh, and

by Jaqui In reply to several reasons....
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Might I say

by ITgirli In reply to oh, and

I am just amazed that we agree on anything. Especially something like this. It's nice. I think I just might cry.....

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It is a trend hitting all North America to become spectators rather than...

by sleepin'dawg In reply to Why are we, as a country, ...

participants. Partly this can be laid at the doorstep of electronic gaming but in the face of a hardening economy and rising costs plus a population unwilling to pay for increasing educational costs many school boards have taken to eliminating things such as physical education and extracuricular sports programs viewed as unnecessary frills to the educational process despite the plumping up of our youngest generation. Sports and phys.ed are looked upon as entertainment not a necessity for a well rounded education and has been consigned to the cost cutting machinery. Whatever happened to the ideal of a sound mind in a sound body???

Parents too are pressed to close to the limit and after a hard day in which both parents are working, it is too convenient to opt for fast food over nutritional values. What is the percentage of latch key kids who upon arriving home, are told they must stay indoors, a consequence of which results in an increasing reliance on 200 channels of TV or game consoles.

Throw in the threat of our society becoming more and more litigous, is it any wonder that kids are becoming more obese. This is in keeping with the whole population becoming increasingly obese. Can any parent resist giving a child food when they are shoveling huge, excessive amounts of food into their own mouths. Kids see this and follow suit.

Assuming a school still has a sports program, once the kid graduates, where can he go to still play a game of hoops or base ball??? Where is the organizational structure for this??? It is non existant.

America, and Canada too for that matter, is going to have to wake up and start telling their people to exercise and the first place to start is by pushing themselves away from the table. I still ski and what constantly surprises me is the increasing dearth of younger skiers on the slopes for which there may be a lot of reasons, too many to go into here.

Are their any solutions to the situation??? There must be but who is going to bring them about when adults are constantly plonking themselves in front of TVs and vegging out. Their kids see this and turn to their game consoles or their MP3 players. Kids don't even dance the way kids used to, anymore. In fact kids don't do much of anything, anymore. Kids aren't being kids anymore. Just an increasing number of lard butts.

Dawg ]:)

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ahhhgh - we is in deep trouble - we agree

by Deadly Ernest In reply to It is a trend hitting all ...

on something totally.

About 25 to 30 years ago the Australian govt ran a campaign called 'Life be in it' in an attempt to get people off couches and back outside. It worked to a fair extent. They are now trying with a newer and more up to date version. No reliable figures yet on how well it is going. Mind you fast food outlets are about 10 times more prevailent (per 1,000 people) now than then.

I would also add that a large factor has been the increases in taxation caused by raising welfare bills has meant that parents now spend more time working, to pay bills etc, now and less time to cook properly. A much higher percentage of families are double income than they were 25 years ago.

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I must have had it lucky

by Too Old For IT In reply to It is a trend hitting all ...

Heck, when we skinned a knee, we picked oursleves up, stopped crying and went back to whatever game we were playing.

When I got home from school, it was "go outside and play". We played pickup football in the grassy field, baseball at the unsupervised diamond, went over to the pig farm to see what Nutty John (the trashman) was up to.

After dinner we had the "street light" rule to guide us when the heck to get back home.

Even tho phys. ed., then as now, was little more than an additional opportunity for the jocks to pound on the non-jocks, as much as I loated it I participated. Little wonder I had to pack on 10 'extra' pounds to make minimum weight for entry into the Marines at 18.

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Standards, morals and goals

by jdclyde In reply to Why are we, as a country, ...

First of all, we had moral standards attacked. If you have moral standards that you live your life by, you are some kind of religious nut.

We have the child quacks that say it is bad to spank a child. You might damage their fraigle little developing self image. We now have a generation of kids with no discipline. Is there any wonder teachers want to just medicate everyone because it is the only way they are ALLOWED to control the kids?

We have mental conditions that we medicate our kids for that HAVE NO TEST TO SEE IF SOMEONE HAS THIS CONDITION.

We have these same quacks saying we need to stop keeping score in kids sporting events because it hurts their little feelings when they lose. Guess what? Losing is good for you. It prepares you for adult life where not everything goes as you want it. It teaches you that you have to work even harder to get someting you want. If winning is not the reason to play, how hard will you play?

Why do both parents HAVE to be gone all day? Because we have been suckered into a consumerism culture of equating STUFF with being successful. If you don't live in a huge and expensive house, you are looked down upon. If you don't drive a great car, something is wrong with you. Wake up people. Want less and apreciate what you have. The more CRAP you buy, the more time you have to spend at WORK to be able to afford it and you can't use your crap now because your too busy working.

There is nothing wrong with being a house wife and taking care of kids. There is nothing wrong with the man staying home to raise the kids if the wife has the better income. There IS something wrong with both working all the time and having someone else raise your kids because you want more stuff.

What will they say about you after you are dead? What do you WANT them to say about you after you are dead?

I would much rather have people say "he was a good dad and loved his family very much", than to have it be said "he was a dedicated company man, and it will take us months to find a replacement".

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hooo boy!

by Jaqui In reply to Standards, morals and goa ...

did we get one of your buttons with this?

I actually agree, and will not buy STUFF just because it's the "Thing to do", I buy something because it helps make my families lives more enjoyable. I also have one rule about purchases..if we can't afford to buy it up front, we don't need it. no debt load, no credit card interest killing me.. no fancy car or huge house.

I'll only buy what is needed for life most of the time, like food and clothing, extras like a new computer, or entertainment system or car are on a when the money is available they are purchased.

I refuse to use fast food for meals, I am to good a cook for that, I can toss a great meal together in under an hour with no effort, so I cook from scratch. I plan meals so that the ingredients are available when needed. You know, the way our grandparents did it while raising our parents.

I don't even own a car, I live in the center of town so public transit is available, if I don't want to walk a mile. Those few times I have further to travel than a few blocks, like 4 to 20 miles, I use public transit. Generally I don't have to travel more than 4 blocks to do anything I need to though. :)

editing to add:

and when I actually had my wife and daughter up here, we lived right near mass transit for my commute needs, and only a few blocks from Metrotown Mall, so easy shopping on foot. I got my wife and daughter into the hbit of walking, and eating right. just by doing so myself. We all spent time together every day, and on my days off we were always together. Family time is important.

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by jdclyde In reply to hooo boy!

you did.

I am WORKING on the cooking bit. Almost nothing uses a mix or premixed powder. More fresh veggies and more lean steak.

Almost no soda, for me OR my boys. Water and gatoraide/poweraide are always kept on hand.

We got the bikes out last night and got a short ride in.

When we golf nine, we walk. When we hit 18 I take a cart. I would never make it walking 18. (too much beer to carry!)

I do not use mass transit unless I go to places like Toronto, Chicago, NY. My work is 134 miles round trip to where my office is. If I have to go to one of the remote locations, double or triple that.

I do not work the extra hours I used to. I make sure I am home "on time" on the weeks I have the boys.

Life is getting better now that the EX is finally gone.

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Lots of things

by CuteElf In reply to Why are we, as a country, ...


Some of the reasons why children are larger and less active than my gen or the one before that:

Parents driving kids to school and picking them up. What happened to letting kids walk????

Lack of phys ed at schools. The programs got cut due to the pressure on the schools from LESS FUNDING and PASSING A STANDARD.

Also, because of many families having both parents working or only a SINGLE parent, there is not an adult at home to help the child. Help as in homework, studying, play, and food choices.

Our society has changed in the form of Get More Done in the Same 24 Hours. So we as adults are expected to do 10 things instead of 5, and are now spending so much more CPU and RAM of ourselves, we are NOT spending enough time/effort with the children.

America has changed gradually from a creating, producing, manufacturing economy to a Service Only Economy. And with THAT, we are again expected to get XYZ^2 done in the same 12-14 hours awake. So instead of washing our own clothes, we take to a dry cleaner. Service.
Instead of doing chores; pay a maid. Service.

Those are two chores kids could do at home. Learn life skills.

I am also afraid that access to computers and access to console gaming is uncontrolled, and kids are now sitting on their butts and fragging instead of playing.

I saw a girl yesterday, she was about 7 or 8. Her BELLY was sticking out so far, her shirt wasnt flat to her pants....She had a Beer Gut shape.

My friend just had a baby about 6 months ago. He's healthy, active and very fun. When he's 2, I'm planning on taking him out to the zoo, museum, and other Field Trips with walking, talking and thinking.

If I had children:

2 Hours max computer per day. I'll set the accounts to be timed, for god's sakes.

No Vid Gaming until weekend, and only if chores and homework are done.

I'm checking over your homework.

I'll try cooking, but if you dont like it, well....Frozen Pizza works too.

We all have chores in the house, and they need to get done.

Walk or ride a bike. Let's go out and find cloud shapes! Or see how many butterflies we can count in a walk.

I also plan on living in a urban area where there is mass transport, and I am going to teach the kids how to use it. I would like a home with a yard/garden but that is a luxury.

Cute Elf

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