In feeling annoyed at parents of overweight kids

[noonki]

I am not saying that all children should be a similar size and I know that some kids are naturally much tubbier than others. (I was when I was younger). But there are so many huge children nowadays and at the supermarket I hate seeing the crap that their parents are putting in the baskets. I hated being overweight, and think that parents have a duty to encourage their kids to exercise and not to have junk in the house.

[floraeasy]

Fat ant!

[ProfessorBranestawm]

I'd love to know what the person who woke the zombie thread actually wrote, I missed it before it was deleted

[thedcbrokemybank]

I think we have normalised shit food. Where once crisps, sweets, chocolate etc used to be a treat they are now seen as the norm. And yet I am seen as the "health police" when I refuse to send my ds with a family size bag of doritos in his lunch. I think there are a lot of nutrient deficient kids out there (and not just the overweight ones).
And there is more of everything - seeing some pictures on FB of a friends dc with 15 easter eggs. There is just no need for it all.

[MaisyPops]

YANBU

Someone I grew up with was large and got more and more overweight. Her mother was obese too. Through school they were very "this is how I am. I'm big boned. My mams big so I get that from her" it went on. Got to 30, she started eating better portion sizes, better food and exercising. Lost the lot! Is now the larger end of healthy but looks amazing. Turns out it was a simple 'calories in vs calories burnt' situation.

She now can see that she picked up her idea of normal eating from am overwight family member and the excuses etc. She's said her kids will be brought up on normal portion sizes and exercising so they don't have to do what she did.

Some people do have medical issues. But the vast majority it's just eating too much of the wrong stuff and not exercising enough and having sedentary lifestyles.

[MycatsaPirate]

My teen rapidly put on weight once she got old enough to start buying her own food and eating out. You reach a point where things are no longer in your hands. Now she is at uni she is realising that she needs to lose weight and has taken up running, walking and football. I also give her healthy suggestions for lunches instead of pizza!

I think the main causes of obese children are:

portion sizes - feeding small children a portion suitable for an adult (dp was very guilty of this with his youngest and was surprised that I suggested cutting it down a bit)

obesity blindness - literally not seeing that your dc are overweight (dp also guilty of this and it's only now looking back at photos of his youngest that he realises how massively overweight she was aged 9 and that wearing adult sized clothes to fit her wasn't great)

lack of education - I mean properly learning to cook. I don't mean knowing about nutrition, I mean learning to cook everything from scratch.

I really think there is a huge need for some sort of buddy system whereby the older generation with some free time can buddy up with someone younger with dc to help them learn to cook and shop healthily and efficiently. Not patronising, just passing on the knowledge.

One last thing is exercise. You often find people saying their dc exercises loads - they do a dance class/play football once a week and are always out on their bike. That's not really loads.

My youngest does 2 hours swimming, 1 hour athletics, 1 hour rounders, 1 hour cricket, about 4 hours walking plus two hours PE lessons every week. Plus going out on her bike. She is naturally slim anyway but would easily put on weight around her tummy if she wasn't so active. She snacks on tomatoes, grapes and carrots (she is the oddest child I know) as well as the odd packet of crisps or brownie.

No food is a bad food in this house. However, I will say only one small punnet of grapes, only one packet of crisps, only one brownie etc. Because she needs to learn to eat food she loves but in moderation.

Biggest treat for her is a punnet of raspberries.

[EddieHitler]

I'm a fat aunt...

[stopfuckingshoutingatme]

Fat ants let's just muse
Upon that mysterious concept x

[ShelaghTurner]

I'm obese. My children aren't although dd1 was fairly chubby last year - she's slimmed down a lot since. And DH is very slim and fit. Guess which one of us tries to feed the girls healthily and which one of us gives them biscuits before breakfast. Now guess which one of us got the blame last year?

I am determined that they won't be fat and miserable like me. DH has never been overweight and doesn't know how soul destroying it is, therefore his incentive to not feed them junk isn't so great. They have him wrapped round their little fingers but guess who takes the flack.

[northerny]

Fucking fat fingers posted too soon...

I don't care that this is a zombie thread, this is brilliant:

you dont get fat eagles, or fat horses, or fat tigers or fat ants.

(You do get fat horses actually, normally because they are fed wrongly or over fed by stupid humans)

[northerny]

*you dont get fat eagles, or fat horses, or fat tigers or fat ants.

[angryladyboobs]

I'm overweight as is my mum.

I was brought up a certain way and my DD is chunky. But very active. She never stops. I'm trying to change the habits I was brought up with so my DD won't struggle with her weight like I have all my life.

[stopfuckingshoutingatme]

whilst I tend to agree, I don't especially like the judgy thoughts that arise in my head on this topic TBH, I am not proud of them.

as for very child that's being overfed, there is a child like a PP who has to take steroids for chronic asthma.

I would fucking hate myself to judge someone for this, if there is even a small percentile chance its not their fault.

I also think that its becoming increasingly acceptable to be rude about overweight people

and starting this thread, its just opens the fucking door for people to indulge.

so you are being unkind, and inflammatory

shame on you OP

This is not a sensible discussion about a very worrying topic, its fat bashing

[Willow2017]

OH FFS NOT ANOTHER BLOODY ZOMBIE THREAD
Is there some virus going around 'reanimating' these threads?

User start another thread you are going to get creamed anyway for being a judgemental pratt. The trouble is, parents can only pass on the knowledge they have themselves. They likely have issues too, so wouldn't know how to start with their kids. You have no idea about someone else nor their kids problems.

[StaplesCorner]

Rude - apt user name - gosh that was insightful. What an outstanding contribution to the obesity debate.

[RudeDog]

I actually posted about this recently- I have 2 female friends who have lost significant amounts of weight recently

At the same time their DDs have put on enormous amounts of weight

They deny themselves food whilst their children are encouraged to gorge themselves (recently I saw one eat 3whole sandwiches for her lunch, 4 mini rolls, 2 mini chocolate bars and 2 small packets of crisps, plus a sugary drink )
Her mother must be aware of the calories as she sat and ate a salad...

I almost think the do it to make themselves feel better - either not denying the children or feeling thinner?

[carjacker1985]

Even if obesity did automatically always equal unhealthy (it doesn't), then we should still be changing attitudes to how people treat fat people- if you are unhealthy, you still don't deserve to be bullied. When kids are bullied for being fat, it's because our society cultivates an environment that allows this- and it trickles down from acceptable narratives such as "health concerns". Children can be unhealthy for all sorts of reasons, not just because they're fat, and are not bullied about it. Do not pretend that it is all about health.

[TheMonkeyandthePlywoodViolin]

I hated this thread 9 years ago too.

[LostPeppers]

But the issue isn't about body shape. It's about health.
A child who is obese has a much higher risk of type 2 diabetes. They are more at risk of heart attack etc...
Surely you want your child to be developping into a healthy adult??

I think it's extremely important to separate issues with body shape (and being fat) and with health (and being obese)

[carjacker1985]

Also worth noting there are plenty of skinny people who feed their skinny kids crap- nobody starts threads about them. We live in a world where people hate fat and go out of their way to make nasty comments about it- that's why fat children are bullied and hate themselves.

[carjacker1985]

If everyone just wants to make sure fat children don't grow up bullied, maybe we should work on changing people's attitudes to fat rather than raising children to believe their bodies are a problem that needs to be fixed.

Fat doesn't always mean unhealthy, and you cannot know anything about the reasons for someone's fatness just by looking at them. As for what other parent's feed their kids, there are a million reasons besides laziness. Aside from anything else, I can't really imagine why you'd care.

[StaplesCorner]

FFS took me ages to realise I didn't look at the date, but nearly 10 years only attitudes are the same:

1. Post about fat kids and then say you are only doing it for the kiddies
   
2. Most people come on and say they know all the answers, eat less move more
   
3. lots of chat about "I saw a fat kid eating McDonalds AND a donut taking alternate bites from each"
   
4. Some people come on and say their child has medical issues
   
5. OP says "oh no, not you, I didn't mean you, you're alright"
   
6. Few people come back on and say this is spiteful and its not that easy, because if it was who in their right mind who "let" their child become overweight
   
7. OP then says "I was only saying about the fat chubsters, poor me, won't someone think of the kiddies, oh the humanity of it all".
   

Wait 6 weeks, rinse and repeat.

[LostPeppers]

user that's a good point too.
I remember reading recently that only the top 10% of children nowdays are as fit as the average 1980 child.
Screens, not being allowed outside to play with other kids... all that plays a part too.

[Magpiemagpie]

Fat is the elephant in the room no one likes to say someone is fat even when it's clear that they are fat
Call somone a cunt and it's fine ive seen that plenty of times on here
Call them Fat and it's not ok and it's fat shaming
Doctors and HCP will use every word possible apart from the word fat
And I say this as someone who has had a gastric sleave

[shrunkenhead]

I meant going from being a "chubby toddler" to an overweight 5 year old, for example. When does it become an issue? At what age do you think "hang on a minute..."

[shrunkenhead]

To reference a PP when does it become an issue for a chubby 18 month old toddler to not be chubby anymore?? Looking back at my nieces and nephews they seem to have gone from cute chubby babies (and babies are before they start moving, right?) to slightly chubby toddlers and then they shoot up in height and lose their baby fat as they move more and grow.