Feature
- Mental Health Screenings Not Necessary in Abortions
- The Burqa Ban is ON!
- Middle-Class Moms and Alcoholism: A Rising Epidemic?
- Murderous Moms: The Peters Tragedy
- Does Being a Pear-Shape Affect Long-Term Memory?
- Is Joan Rivers a Matriarch of Feminism?
- Mother-Murdering Teen Addresses the Media From Jail
- Forget Ron Burgundy ... Anchorladies on the rise!
- Celebrate! Argentina Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage!
- Saudi Group Using “Prophet of Four” Concept to Control Women
I liked The Associated Press story about why Michelle Obama decided to make childhood obesity a major focus during her husband’s presidency. It was refreshing to read her talking about her own shortcomings as a mother, and how she tried to address those when pointed out to her:
“In my eyes, I thought my children were perfect,” the first lady said. “I didn’t see the changes.”
But the family’s pediatrician, she said, kept a close eye on trends in African-American children and “warned that he was concerned that something was getting off-balance.” The doctor “cautioned me that I had to take a look at my own children’s BMI,” or body mass index, the first lady said.
I think the story appealed to me because I know how easy it is personally (I don’t have children) to slip into unhealthy habits without even realizing their implications. Recently, I noticed that the only fast food restaurant I frequent seems to be having some pretty profound effects on me. I noticed this awful sick-to-my-stomach feeling, which is almost always followed by an intense need to sleep. I don’t know why it took me so long to put 2-and-2 together (I’ve been eating at this place once a week for about 6 months now). But I’m glad I finally realized the pattern.
And I think that’s partly what Michelle Obama was talking about when she shared her story about her daughters. It sounds like she knew that watching television during the week and a diet with few vegetables were bad habits, but she needed a little wake-up call to take action. So, I think I’ll take her story as my own little alarm bell to change my fast food habit. I like her approach: “small changes can lead to big results.”
-
-
41
var feedback_widget = new GSFN.feedback_widget(feedback_widget_options);
She’s so refreshingly normal. I love it how she points out that you actually need to *work* for what she or her husband have achieved and nothing comes for free.
I really hope some change in childhood obesity comes soon, I get so sad when I see all these fat toddlers. Kids WANT to run around and burn shit-tons of calories having fun which makes me wonder what could these people possibly be pumping into their offspring that they are fat at so young an age? I just want kids to have happy and healthy childhoods and obesity is a huge block to that wish.
My son is 4 and he’s on the slim side of average, about 40th percentile in weight and 60th percentile in height at his last doctor’s appointment. He doesn’t stick out in our town because the childhood obesity rate is low; a combo of low risk population and healthy environment. When we go elsewhere though he often looks freakishly skinny. Sometimes we go to an indoor playground in a neighboring city, much poorer area and more high risk populations like black kids and hispanic kids. I’ve seen kids there struggling to get out of the ball pit, ones who can’t sit in the swings (that one is just heart breaking), and some that play for a few minutes and then go sit in the cafe area and eat pizza and other junk food. Meanwhile my kid and the other slim kids are all running about for hours. It’s really not rocket science. Let them run, don’t feed them endless crap.
Fat little kids make me sad, and then really angry.
Losing weight is hard, and kids are rarely in control of their diets.
You have parents pumping their kids full of soda and chips and plopping them in front of the tv. Then the kids have to deal with being fat adolescents. That can’t be easy. And they usually don’t have a support system for losing the weight.
It’s a tragic cycle. It makes me wanna slap the hell out of their parents.
I have one little brother that is very large, and one little brother that looks anorexic. They eat the same amount and type of food, and they get the same amount of exercise. Sometimes kids are just different sizes.
It bothers me that people assume that every kid who’s a bit chubby has a horrible diet and doesn’t exercise, because it’s certainly not true. My brothers had ADHD for years (thank God they’re kind of growing out of it), and they are crazy active.
There isn’t always a direct correlation. My kid is skinny but he eats like a horse. Mostly healthy stuff but a lot of it. I’ve seen this kid slap about 1/4 cup of peanut butter on a sandwich or eat 4 bananas in a row. In the same way there are some husky kids who don’t stuff their faces. However, when you see the fat kids sitting in a carriage full of junk at the supermarket or sitting around at the park while their peers play then you can bet that they’d slim down a bit if they lived a healthier lifestyle.
I was always head and shoulders above other kids my age, chubby and technically overweight. But I was amazing at sports and ate only organic vegetarian food. I was limited to half an hour of tv a day.
I just had puppy fat. it does exist. I was skinny when I hit puberty. Not all fat kids are unhealthy.
I meant fat little kids. Not chubby ones. Obese kids.
I think this is a great approach. She doesn’t just blame other parents, she realises that it can happen for everyone and that it can be difficult.
On other sites there have been discussions about her saying that her kids were getting chubby and and that it’s bad for the girls. But the way she comes across I’m pretty sure she discussed that with her daughters first and that they are ok with what she says. She’s just trying to help!
I was actually just reading something saying how she was wrong to point to her girls and that they’re going to get eating disorders because of this, but I completely disagreed I thought she was very respectful and obviously loving when she mentions her kids, I’m glad someone else really liked her reasoning’s and approach to this subject.
It all depends on how you actually send the message. As far as I can see, Ms. Obama was concerned for her daughters’ health, not their beauty. It’s not like she said about her daughters “ewww their gross”, but rather “I think we’ve had too many pizzas lately, let’s try to focus on eating healthier again.”
I hope Ms. Obama can really make a difference with her focus on this issue. It is heartbreaking to see obese children who are so overweight because their parents either don’t care, or don’t know how to feed them healthy food. Also, I don’t feel that she was speaking in any way negatively of her daughters, but simply saying that she wants them to be healthy.
Kids used to come home from school, toss their books in their rooms and go outside to play until dinner.
Summers were spent outside, riding bikes, swimming, playing baseball, softball or whatever games we had the imagination/equipment for. I know that my friends and I easily spent a solid month building a tree house once. We left the house after breakfast, made it home for dinner, then back out til dark. If the fireflies were particularly awesome, we’d be outside chasing them til we were forced inside.
I don’t think that there were any more perverts or abductions than there are today, it is just that there wasn’t this huge media attention thing (ratings = money and horror sells).
There was no such thing as play dates (it amuses me to even hear that term), playing is what kids DID. Unless there was a chore that needed to be done, or school work, we were playing.
I feel for these kids today. They have no real childhood that isn’t scripted and supervised by adults.
Ever wonder why you have school shootings? I believe it is because these kids never got to learn how to fight it out, work it out and still remain friends. There is always an adult around, preaching to them.
Kids need to be left to their own devices sometimes. It makes them strong, it helps them learn how to deal with things on their own – no Mommy to intervene – they learn how to do it themselves.
And please – no bully stories. The world is full of bullies. They will never go away. It’s good to learn how to handle them.
Oh my God, I love you and agree with you 1,000,000%. Kids are soooo over-parented these days. What happened to the days of just leaving to play and coming back at suppertime??? Kids aren’t totally stupid, and they can learn on their own without constant adult interference. Did I get beaten up on the playground or in middle school? Of course. Most everyone I know got beaten up at some point or another, but guess what? We all stood back up, wiped the blood from our lip and nose and figured out how to stand up to that bully the next time they came around. It would have humiliated the crap out of me if my mother had intervened! That’s how I learned to be my own person and to have a backbone!
I’ve been telling my boyfriend for years that when we have kids, I’m quite literally going to kick them out of the house after they’ve finished their homework and to not come back until the streetlights come on.
Your right,kids don’t burn off those calories anymore,and they eat too much sugar. We never had pop in the house and no one had the money to buy candy. Thats an interesting observation on school shootings,I think you’ve got something there. I use to think that society had just gotten to violent,but when we were kids we loved western shoot-outs and WW2 dramas,so nothing has changed that much. Me and all my buds owned 22 rifles at the age 12,and never ever thought of shooting each other.
And there would be no accidental shootings, either.
Why?
Because you were taught how to be safe.
A 12th birthday was always a big deal because it meant that you could hunt (although most boys just went into the woods for pure enjoyment and rarely brought home game), it was a rite of passage for most boys.
They would be expected to be responsible and they usually were.
Exactly. Hunting comes with gun safety training. If you can’t handle the gun, you don’t hunt with it or shoot with it. Every single person I know who has been raised with guns, knows how to use them properly and safely, and there was absolutely zero gun violence at my 5A high school from students who were knowledgable about firearms.
I’m not saying that gun violence 100% won’t happen, but you run a much smaller risk of it happening when you educate your kids about guns and keep guns in a safe that only you and your husband or wife know the combination to.
Guns are given as gifts for milestone birthdays in my neck of the woods, too. Only if you’ve been taught to use them, however.
My guy is still a little young to be outside by himself but when we’re at the playground or whatever I let him run loose. I know where he is but I’m not right on top of him, I just find a good spot where I can see most of the play area or at least all the possible exits because he’s still young enough to think that running off could be fun sometimes. Sure he falls on his butt sometimes or gets stuck at the top of a big slide or a ladder and if a bigger kid punched him I’d be right there but for the most part he’s perfectly capable of dealing with situations by himself. I see parents totally hovering over their kids and saying things like “don’t do that honey, it’s too hard for you.” We go to an indoor playground at the mall if the weather is sucky and some of the conversations I’ve heard there just make me want to smack the moms. Yes ladies, an outdoor playground is dirty. Yes, sometimes kids gets splinters from playing on that big scary wooden equipment. Yes, there are kids over age 5 there and no security to make them behave. So what?
It’s actually unhealthy to not let the kids get good and dirty,they have to build an immune system with exposure to germs.
Exactly. My 3 eldest kids were brought up the same way I was ( and so are the 2 youngest) and they are leaders whatever they do.
Their teachers, bosses and in my daughter’s case – military superiors all note that they take charge of difficult situations, make innovative decisions, and naturally lead others.
I don’t think that’s a coincidence. I do think it’s a shame that they stand out with characteristics all kids used to acquire naturally.
My husband and I were just talking about this.
We think part of the reason kids are inside so much has a lot to do with the demise of the neighborhood. It used to be a bunch of families all living in houses. People had yards and there were usually parents out and about. Not hovering, just being enough of a presence that you felt ok about sending your kid out.
Now with the rise of apartments complexes you’ve got so many people living in such a small space that nobody really knows each other. There are no common areas and few parks. It’s just not that safe to let kids go play in the parking lot of an apartment complex.
It’s the quality of the neighborhoods, too. My neighborhood used to be pretty nice when I was young. Now, we have a LOT of unsavory characters living around us. I would think twice about letting my children play outside unsupervized around here.
Thats too bad,I’m glad I’m sixty not twenty.
It’s a whole different attitude too. Twenty years ago if you saw a kid acting up you’d tell them off and probably know their parents phone number too. If you saw a little kid getting injured you’d help out. Now most people wouldn’t dare to let a little kid in the house to clean up and get a band aid because someone would accuse you of kidnapping or molestation or something.
I know there are other little kids in my neighborhood but nobody socializes. We used to have a little boy across the way that we’d play with occasionally but they moved way across town. I’ve tried talking to a lot of other moms around here but it’s very rare for anyone to play for more than a few minutes. I’d think it was just me but nobody ever socializes.
Totally. When we were kids, one mom would yell at us just as readily as another. And if we were thirsty we’d go into any kids house and get a drink. That doesn’t happen anymore.
!000% agree with you again Blurry!
I grew up climbing and running and riding horses. I still have my old pony (she is about 14 or 15) and she will be my daughter’s pony when she is bigger. The amount of horror I get from other parents when I say that is unbelievable. Do I know ponies are dangerous? yes. Do I know she could get hurt? absolutely. I spent much of my childhood covered in cuts and bruises. Her grandmother even said “Oh, they will take her away from you if she has bruises.”
What sort of world is it when a kid can’t ride a pony without censure?
My grandmother watched me a lot when I was young, and whenever I came in with a cut or scrape, she’d glance at me, make sure I didn’t have any bones popping out or anything, then say “It’ll fester up,” and tell me to get my “patootie” back outside and climb up a tree or fence! :) God, I love that woman.
Nonsense. I took my kid to the dr once, I think he was about 3.5 at the time, and it just so happened that he was covered in bruises at the time. He’s a little boy, he’s always throwing himself head first off something or another. I commented that kids always insist on getting particularly bruised up before doctors appointments. The doctor told me he gets way more worried about the kids who aren’t covered in bruises and scrapes because they’re the ones who aren’t keeping active and learning about their world.
If she’s regularly showing up at school with cracked ribs and extensive bruising then that would raise some questions but most teachers have a little common sense when it comes to this stuff and can tell the difference between a kid who sprained a wrist falling off a horse and one who has striped bruises across their back from a belt beating.
Thats a relief. I didn’t want to have to resort to what my parents did, which was take me to the vet who lived on the next property to assess whether bones were actually broken or not before driving to the doctor, to hide future kid carnage from the authorities.
My foster kids were such trembling violets I could never get them to play on swings without me, let alone get up enough dander to actually cause damage. Kids who are afraid to play break your heart. I was so happy when they started roughousing together I bought them an icecream cake and taught them how to food fight.
It used to be that if 2 boys (or less regularly, but it still happened) got into it, they’d fight it out. When all was over, 99% of the time, they’d shake hands and be friends. If they were in school, they would most likely get a suspension out of it.
Now?
Zero tolerance reigns supreme (and runs amok, in my opinion). No physical violence is tolerated at all. The police are called and everyone ends up in court.
I’m not saying it should be encouraged, but it does need to be understood. Throw a couple hundred young teen boys with testosterone poisoning together and something has to give at some point.
My son just told me the other day that a number of boys have organized “fight clubs” where they meet on the weekends to pound the cat piss out of each other lol. They call them UCF clubs – I am not sure what that stands for.
Freakin edit button isn’t working!
Should have been (or less regularly, 2 girls…)
Kids fight. The no tolerance rules really bother me. Don’t get me wrong, if a gang jumps a kid and beats him within an inch of his life, there should be some legal retribution, but regular old, one-on-one duking it out should not be settled in court. They’re kids, not wholly learned, rational adults.
More over they are teenagers with hormones raging all over them. Have some sympathy!
They are called Ultimate Fight Clubs. Be very careful here. Google it. It can be a good thing, but unsupervised it can be a death match. A few teachers just got fired for having a fight club after school. My youngest son wanted to go pro, but it was way too impossible without doing steroids. (and he’s well over 6 foot, maybe 250 or so. He’s got calves the size of my…hell I don’t know what. He’s huge.
My son isn’t involved in it, V, he is entirely too laid back for that. He was just telling me about it because he and I had discussed unfocused aggression in the past.
Thanks for the information, though!
They just had this documentary on tv http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/doczone/2010/hyperparents/index.html
I don’t know if anyone watched it. It was very very enlightening. gave me new respect for the way my parents brought me up (“DO NOT drip blood in here, I just washed the floors! Are you dying? No? Go outside and bleed then.”) and made me more and more determined not to coddle my daughter. After she has finished being a baby, that is. At the moment she needs coddling.
I wonder if this will ever show up online? Or even on television in the states?
The 2 clips I could access were really interesting.
I think a lot of you would enjoy this:
http://freerangekids.wordpress.com/
Great site, Kai!
I love Lenore! She’s so great! And hilarious!
[...] banning toys from the Happy Meal package. This is in the name of combating childhood obesity, a cause that First Lady Michelle Obama has faced head on. As an increase in obesity rates continue, the fast food industry is facing growing [...]