Obese children

The mum & dad are usually overweight as well.
BIL & SIL are both quite heavy, their girls are too.
What they all eat at home is the biggest factor.
SIL shops in the freezer aisle. BIL buys fast food.

Look at the illegal boat arrivals. Have you seen a fat one?

Then look at deliveroo drivers etc. They have suddenly become obese.

It is a UK problem. Benefits system overhaul l needed.

Fully agree. Some of these posters would do well to come and live and work with the families I interact with on a daily basis. It’s much harder to dismiss them as stupid poor people when you have to force yourself to admit they’re human!

However it does allow people to confirm to themselves that they are superior and that’s all that matters.

Of course it is. It’s a problem that affects society that we all live in. It will likely have implications for these children as they get older and also probably on the NHS. I live in an area with lots of families who are economically deprived and the rates of childhood obesity are much higher than neighbouring affluent areas. Access of affordable healthy food, and the means and time to cook it, is a systemic issue that needs to be addressed. Although the solution is complex.

I was the fat kid. It was 100% due to bad family eating habits.

My DC have never been obese (20’s now). It is a massive parenting failure imo to have a kid primary age be obese unless they have metabolic medical problems.

How do I look like an arse? About 30 people liked my original response to Backtothebestbits. Christ, you are quite the arsehole aren’t you! Dick head.

Bored hungry is definitely a thing but hard to recognise in the first place and then to mitigate for when you are working parent and struggling financially.
It’s difficult to have the headspace to entertain your child so easier to give them the food and maybe let them have screens rather than play outside where they may need supervision.
I have definitely done that at times.

Yes, agree with this.
When my eldest was a toddler and I used to go to activities with fellow NCT mums, they were constantly bringing our snacks - breadsticks, raisins, pouches. Then they were baffled when their DCs were not hungry at mealtimes. This was a middle class area.
Then snacks for school at break time.
Snacks on the way home.
I didn’t grow up in the Victorian era but we didn’t have snacks during break time at school and I don’t remember being hungry because of that.

Wow someone (@readandsew) actually said poverty is not an excuse.......... I am speechless! What a stunning claim. Wow.

It’s poverty, and people are working too many jobs to do meal prep. They’re exhausted and we have a hideous long hour/multiple jobs culture.

the working classes are not fucking lazy

I’ve lived in the poorest areas full of nutritionally deficient, pasty, overweight youngsters and with completely overworked parents.

In one of the richest areas where I now live there isn’t an overweight kid in the school nearest me and they’re all bloody glowing with health.

This is a disgusting thread full of judgements about ‘the poor’.

Yanbu. My friends 7yo is 7.5 stone. Wears age 15/16 clothes that are for too long to fit their waist.
They just get fed kebab, macdonalds, KFC and junk food ( parents eat healthier) apparently child kicks off if they don't get what they want.
They get picked up from school with a large bag of sweets eat day

It's sad to see

I actually frequently see the exact opposite. Mam's who are extremely thin, designer clothes, big fake eyelashes, lip and cheek fillers, hair extensions, all extremely focused on their own appearance but with very overweight or obese children.

I grew up in poverty and it was also the case that the sweet treats were cheap and easy treats that my mum could afford. I didn't get holidays, maybe 1 trip to the beach in the summer holidays and that was a massive treat, especially if my mum could afford fish & chips for us to share too.

It's just a completely different mindset.

I was never obese as a child, I think because I spent a lot of time playing outside from about the age of 8. Of course, that makes you a bad parent now.

I agree to an extent. My kids grew up in poverty, with poor food and I was very sensitive to them saying they were hungry. But I learned to differentiate between 'hunger-hungry' and 'bored-hungry' and tried not to overcompensate. Incidentally, I divorced their dad and was VERY aware that 'guilt-feeding' occasionally crept into our lifestyle. All the kids were skinny until puberty, when PCOS meant eldest daughter piled on the weight. She's still chunky as an adult, all the others are normal weight.

I can see how someone in poverty might be making extra sure that their kids aren't hungry though or feel almost triggered if their child is saying that they are hungry compared to someone who is comfortable and doesn't have to worry that not feeding their child is just a broken washing machine or insert other financial emergency away.

Op in all honesty I hope you don’t visibly judge them, one of my friends as a child was overweight and another friend used to say’everything ok?’ as people would look at her, especially if we were in McDonald’s or buying sweets. I loved her for it! She didn’t eat any worse than any of us and they weren’t a ‘live on pizzas’ type of family. Age 14/15 she got a lot taller and it was distributed a lot more evenly. No need to judge kids, they’ve enough to navigate

I know a few MC people with very good incomes where their children are overweight. The weird thing is the parents themselves are very obsessed with their own weight/appearance whilst their children are very obese.
Someone I went to school with will bitch about the weight of people we know at every opportunity, all 4 of her children have a weight issue, I dont know if she is just blind to it.

DH often complains that DD is too skinny, she’s not. Shes a good weight. Some of her friends are very overweight so probably doesn’t look average. I was a similar size at her age and thought I was overweight compared to my size 6/8 best mate.

I find this really quite insulting. As I do in real life where I have experienced it many times, directly and indirectly. I have been told to my face that I am overweight and that's why my children (were) overweight. I am clearly a bad influence - according to these other people.

Except, I have PCOS. Losing weight is insanely difficult for me. When pregnant (and therefore NOT suffering from PCOS), the weight literally falls off me. I came out of both my pregnancies much much thinner than I was before them. My doctor would LOVE to give me weight loss drugs because they have actually been developed for people like me, but she can't. So I will get them privately when I can afford it - it's hard to pay for them considering the £1000s I already pay every year for DS' ADHD treatment and meds, the £1000s we are currently forking out for his orthodontic treatment becuase the NHS says they WILL do it.... but the waiting list is so long he'd get them in the middle of his GCSEs, and the prioritisation that DH and I have agreed on to encourage our children to do extra curricular activities, including DS playing one sport at a fairly high level and DD heading in a similar way for her activity.... (and I'm very very conscious that we are LUCKY to be able to afford what we do).

DH is not overweight. But that's only because he exercises so much he can get away with his (probably also linked to ND) eating. LIke DS, it's the VOLUME of food he gets through vs what he eats. On the plus side, unlike his sister (most likely ALSO ND), he has never crossed the line into an eating disorder, although has definitely suffered from disordered eating in the past, and has previously been overweight as a result.

I'm not going to lie, as my children have slimmed down, I have wondered what all those other people who judged me have thought then. I'm sure they came up with something new. Probably about why I can't lose weight even while I'm helping my children to.

@HappyNewTaxYear ah bless, a typo, must have been my obese fingers

I know of several- parents healthy weight, cross fit lifestyle etc. that prioritise their own diets but feed kids convenience foods as it’s easy. Same families also use food indulgence as ‘treats’ as they work long hours, so going for a giant sundae or trip after school for several types of sweets as time spent together.

Yes usually overweight parents tend to raise over weight kids, but it’s more complex. The attitude of beige freezer food and packaged sweet treats being no different to whole foods for kids (a calorie is a calorie, they burn it all off running around, it’s just puppy fat, etc. being the mantras) is rife in our very middle class, professional area. It seems ok until about yr6 but from then on the weight begins to really show, possibly because the portions get bigger and the kids have more access to help themselves.

Agree with this. There is a snacking obsession
My daughter has a school leavers disco on Friday. The PTA have said each child gets a box of snacks on arrival (crisps, sweets, fruit shoot type thing, biscuits ), and ice pop during the thing and then a portion of chips at the end. The disco only lasts an hour! She dances for 3 hours on a Saturday without needing a snack

I agree with pp who said that hunger is seen as an enemy. It's almost as though every slight discomfort has to be soothed these days, rather than suffering for a bit. I've seen people snacking their way towards dinner, I've been with a man who ate every four hours, because he might otherwise feel 'hungry'. Whilst extreme hunger isn't pleasant, simply having a rumbling stomach because it's been six hours since the last meal won't do anyone any harm.

But people are treating hunger as though the merest pangs of being a bit peckish must be overcome with 'snacks'. And, given that children will say 'I'm hungry' every time they are bored, they are being given food that they simply don't need. Back to three meals a day might cure a lot of obesity, cut out all the junky 'snacks' (which are simply eating between meals by another name), and learn (and teach children) that being hungry before dinner is a GOOD thing.

“fast majority”?

My kids are driven to school because I have to go to work straight from there. The vast majority of other parents driving to school are doing the same.

Yes it means children aren’t walking to school anymore but it’s not (in a lot of cases) because the parents are too fat and lazy, it’s because they are going to work afterwards.

I cannot exercise due to disability.

My children are still slim and healthy because I can afford to pay for them to do lots of sports.
Not everyone has that option and at some schools very limited time is given to PE and there is very little playground space for exercise.

I would love to see more investment in free or subsidised sports options.

It's easy to judge people but not everyone lives easy lives.