Mumsnet Talk

turning into a right whingey old pedant here but am I the only one to feel slightly worried by the fact that some of these questions presuppose that everybody needs to go on diets or carefully observe the calorie intake; the question "How often are you dieting in a conscious effort to control your weight?" can be answered by Rarely but not by Never.

"When I have eaten my quota of calories, I am usually good about not eating any more." does not provide any boxes for Quota of calories- what's that?

The question "On a scale of 1-10, where 1 is no restraint in eating and
10 means total restraint, what number would you give yourself?" does not leave the option that there might be some people out there who have a natural sense of satiation when they have eaten what their body needs and therefore do not need to exercise restraint. That is a little worrying.

or perhaps some questions are just badly phrased: If I answer No to "Do your feelings of guilt about overeating help you to control your food intake?"
it could mean either that I am too far gone to be controlled by feelings of guilt or that I don't happen to have any feelings of guilt (and quite possibly for good reasons)- how are the researchers going to know?

but the whole parent side of the questionnaire seems to be built around the idea that everybody has to make a conscious effort to control their weight and that they feel guilty about eating

I'd be a bit worried about what messages that sends to the next generation