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AIBU?

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Original poster

To be shocked at how many overweight kids there are here?

956 replies

glasgowsfinest · 29/08/2017 18:18

Have got my fireproof hat in place, here goes...! I'm currently at a Butlin's-type holiday park on the south coast. As you can imagine, it's jammed full of kids of all ages. I'm genuinely shocked at how many of them, from pre-schoolers to older teens, are significantly overweight. I don't think puppy fat can be used as an excuse for all of them. Thinking back to my childhood, overweight kids were the exception, not the rule, but now it seems the opposite. I have two children who by no means have a perfect diet, and eat more chocolate and watch more TV than I thought I'd allow, but they're active too and don't seen to have any fat on them at all! Maybe they're just "lucky", I don't know. But the sheer numbers of chunky kids made me feel quite sad.

OP posts:
icelollycraving · 29/08/2017 19:12

God I hate the word classy.

SongforSal · 29/08/2017 19:12

Well OP. Congratulations on ruffling my feathers!

You coined it a 'depressing observation' yet you don't factor in a multitude of reasons. As I previously posted, my ds is overweight. He is 99th percentile for both height and weight. He eats healthy homecooked food, and exercises more than any kid I know his age.

When he swam in the sea this week, my heart absolutely broke at the amount of adults who were staring at him. He has a bit of a belly, and swelling around his nipples.

His doctor has changed his epilepsy medication twice to try and alleviate this. My Dc is 12 and has cried countless times over being ridiculed.

Last week he disappeared for hours on his bike, we live in the countryside and the poor sod took himself of on an 18 mile bike ride because that morning a teenage lad called him a fat bastard.

Look, I love mumsnet, and I'm a regular poster. I'm sure you meant no harm OP, but I need to point out that overweight children aren't necessarily being given a bad diet, they aren't necessarily poor either.
From us mums out their who have to calorie count meals, and mop up tears. Give us a break. My kid has feelings, and people feel the need to hurt his.

Changeschangechangeagain · 29/08/2017 19:13

NHS
Statistics on Obesity, Physical Activity and Diet - England, 2017 [NS]
Publication date: March 30, 2017

In 2015/16, over 1 in 5 children in Reception, and over 1 in 3 children in Year 6 were measured as obese or overweight.

Toadinthehole · 29/08/2017 19:14

Yanbu, OP.

But the question I have is why obesity had increased. I remember kids eating a ton absolute shit in the 80s but obesity was very rare. Why?

wonderingsoul · 29/08/2017 19:15

Inwas that over weight kid. And i wish i had parents who did something about it. They loved me but used food as a reward a show of love or cheering up. its fucked my relationship with food right up.

Im determended ti make sure my two boys dont follow. They have allways been slim but the past 2 months they have got chunky, baby fat.. where before they didnt have any...

Normally they get but if a belly before a growth spurt and then it goes again but it hasnt this time.
Ill admit i do judge parents for letting their kids get dangourouesly over weight, (i judge myself to, and am working on it by cutting out crap for the whole family so they dont get a complex but will lose the weight before it gets harder to) and i feel sad for the child.

Mumof41987 · 29/08/2017 19:15

I too wonder this . I'm 35 and when at school there was only ever one large child in the class . Nowadays over half are over weight ! My kids are all skinny rakes

propertingz · 29/08/2017 19:16

You're going to get the typical 'but my child has SN which means they can't help being fat and we can't do anything as parents about it either!'

So brace yourself for that..

YANBU. Parents who allow their children to be obese are abusive by proxy. They clearly don't care about the health of their DC. It is shocking.

SongforSal · 29/08/2017 19:16

Ps..... Sorry if I sounded harsh OP, regarding ruffling my feathers. Just back from coast thinking about the people who were staring at him and I got defensive. Much love.

augustrat · 29/08/2017 19:16

YANBU, and not just the kids. We went to Butlins Skegness at Easter and I felt like a supermodel. I'm a generous size 10 and I was a good two or three dress sizes smaller than the next-slimmest person I saw all week.

(Also the only one without a tattoo - a separate topic.)

We paid for the Premium Dining and had a good couple of desserts each. Some people we saw carrying literal trays of 10 desserts and sitting on a table by themselves.

We saw more than one (obese) child being given Haribo before 8 a.m.

Kpo58 · 29/08/2017 19:16

I think that portion sizes and the lack of affordable healthy fast food places.

Fried chicken and chips shouldn't be so much cheaper than a quinoa salad.

WomblingThree · 29/08/2017 19:17

Oooh lovely, another thread to put down the "lower classes".

Maybe should have picked a more upmarket resort OP and been protected from those hideously chunky children.

BarbarianMum · 29/08/2017 19:18

At the inter-schools (primary) swimming gala I attended last term, approximately 50% of the children taking part were visably overweight. Pretty depressing as these were obviously a sample of the sportier kids. Sad

TheEmmaDilemma · 29/08/2017 19:19

I very nearly started something similar and did not through fear of being flamed. But I simply could not ignore today the fact that a high percentage of the children I spotted today in the supermarket were overweight. Very visibly so. To the point that I really did notice.

Dentistlakes · 29/08/2017 19:20

You are right there are far more overweening children than there used to be. I don't think it's just due to inactivity either. DS1 swims for a club and trains 5+ hrs per week. There are a fair number of quite overweight kids in his squad. I think the amount of hidden sugar in a lot of foods is to blame. It's incredibly easy to go over the recommended amount. I recently counted the amount my kids were consuming over a weekend and they consumed nearly twice the recommended amount for their age. All it took was a smoothie and a couple of birthday parties when they had some cake. No fizzy drinks or what you would think of as a lot of junk food.

Burntcustard · 29/08/2017 19:20

Snack food has a lot to do with it. I have two close friends whose children are overweight - aged 10-12. When they were toddlers, I was always surprised at how much snack food they had with them even for a trip to the playground and how both sets of parents would insist on their children eating their meal even if they said they weren't hungry. I noticed this as I wasn't surprised the kids weren't hungry given all the biscuits/raisins etc.

My own DD loves snack food and complains we don't have enough of it. It is tiring saying no - and I hope she doesn't binge as she gets older - but as long as I am responsible she gets a healthy diet.

Dentistlakes · 29/08/2017 19:20

Overweight not overweening!

donajimena · 29/08/2017 19:20

My other half has an overweight daughter. We were on an all inclusive holiday last week and one hour after a stupendous lunch she was eating a burger and chips.
As he constantly worries about her weight I looked at him and as if in act of defiance to me he told her to 'tuck in and enjoy'
He could do far more to help her with healthy eating but doesn't want to be the mean parent..Confused
I don't ever mention her weight but when he has brought it up all my suggestions of a smaller plate etc are ignored. He doesn't want to give her a complex and make her anorexic! But he's happy to leave her with stretchmarks and the risk of diabetes.
But its ok because she does two hours of swimming for half the year!
There is so much more he could do but she just gets bigger and bigger

Excited101 · 29/08/2017 19:20

It's very noticeable but its adults too. Witnessing kids snacking habits these days it's no wonder

TinklyLittleLaugh · 29/08/2017 19:21

I live in a naice, affluent village. Most people are slim. However at end of term assembly I noticed about a third of Y6 were on the chubby side. Not sure about the girls but none of the chubby boys play on my DS's football team, or indeed play out after school.

Kids are really supposed to be very slim. So many parents seem quite oblivious that their kids are overweight. My son recently had tea at a chubby friend's house and was astonished by the portion size he was given. He kept on about it for ages afterwards.

I'm 52. When I was in y6 there was honestly no one overweight in my class.

Timefortea99 · 29/08/2017 19:21

I was in Canterbuty recently and there were lots of groups of French school kids. What was marked was the slimness of the teenagers.

Compare and contrast with a group of British teenagers. A lot of them will be on a scale of overweight to obese. I don't blame the children, they are being enabled by their parents, many of which have their own weight issues. Children see their parents and other kids in school and being overweight has become a norm.

It does need discussing however unpalatable and judgemental - not least because of the future costs and demands on the NHS. And it is so desperately sad for the children. Hampered by weight, at risk from lifestyle illnesses.

It is not just a question of cost of healthy food either. Visits to McDonalds and Pizza Hut are not cheap. A lot of parents are choosing to be unhealthy and expecting their kids to follow in their footsteps.

megletthesecond · 29/08/2017 19:22

Yanbu. It's got really bad.

Around 20% of the kids in the dc's swimming lessons are clearly way over weight.

Caprianna · 29/08/2017 19:22

I visited friends who holidayed in a caravan park this summer and I could tell we were getting close to the caravan park by the number of large people - adults and children. We went in the pool and I think my children were the only slim ones in there and the pool was full. When everyone around you is fat I suppose it seems normal.

Obesity is linked to poverty but personally I just don't think there are any excuses for letting your child get fat as its so preventable (obviously excluding reasons like illnesses but that is rare). I think its a form of abuse personally.

raspberrysuicide · 29/08/2017 19:22

I was at the swimming pool recently and there was a fairly large girl standing in her dripping swimming costume in front of her open locker furtively eating a bar of chocolate. I assumed her parents thought she was swimming and getting fit/losing weight etc when she was actually stuffing her face

busyboysmum · 29/08/2017 19:23

It's pointless saying this is a poor bashing thread. It isn't. It's in all walks of life.

But it is a serious issue and needs discussing. These kids are going to have so many problems going into adulthood if this is their starting point.

They will have a lifelong struggle with their weight. There is so much ready availability of cheap crap. When I was a kid we didn't snack like kids do nowadays.

I watched a really interesting documentary on Netflix called The Men Who Made us Fat. It's all cynical marketing from people who just want to make money from the public and care nothing about the health implications.