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.

[SleepFreeZone]

I think it's a lifestyle thing. If the parents/carers tend to sit and eat chocolate and fried chicken in front of the TV then the kids are naturally going to follow suit.

Massive fat kid outside Tesco at the weekend waiting to cross road with equally large grandparents (I think). She looked no older than 7 and was with another child who looked about 5 and for 20/30 secs they were alone as the GPs were yet to appear from the door. I clocked them because they seemed to young to be crossing the road alone, then GPs appeared, then the 7 year old dropped her huge pot of pick and mix sweets all over the pavement 😬

[blankmind]

Zombie Thread from 2008

User, please start a new topic

[DoomGloomAndKaboom]

Why bump a thread? Because you don't know how mn works and you have something to flog/promote, I imagine.

Are you the author of the second piece, zombie-thread raiser user1493285860?

[Justaboy]

When i were a lad back in the 'err, the late fifties, we used to run about all over the place, very very active we were and whats also good was that mum used to cook boring things like fresh veg always being exhorted to "eat up 'tha greens lad" etc.

But anyone fat was a rare person.

With modern lifestyles its no wonder obesity is so prevalent:(

[DoomGloomAndKaboom]

Ah, I see user1493285860 has had a post removed from another, similar, zombie thread.

He/she is just her to give us some spam. Which is awfully ironic, given the subject matter.

[user3459859083590890]

Blast it! What were they selling then? I missed that post!!!!

[PeppaAteMySoul]

My 4 year old is a bit chubby and I honestly can't see where I've gone wrong. He walks to nursery and back (1.5 miles each way), he's active. He eats good sized portions (I checked with the health visitor). So for lunch he had half a cheese sandwich, carrot sticks and hummus and a few cherry tomatoes. Me and his dad are a healthy weight.
It's still my fault. I'm just unsure how to fix things. It's a complicated issue.

[user3459859083590890]

My sister was just a tiny bit chubby (definitely not fat) back in the 70s. Other sibs and parents were beanpoles. Still the same as adults. All got fed the same. No idea why!

[MarmaladeSoup]

I had an overweight friend in Primary school. Her whole family, mum, dad and sister were also 'big'. I can remember going to their house after school and having tea with them and they'd eat the most enormous portions of food that I just physically couldn't finish. Always served with bread and butter, a fizzy drink and a slice of cake after.

They were lovely people, and I don't want people to think I'm mean but they just didn't seem to have idea about a balanced diet and portion control.

[user1488756360]

YANBU but I think it's unfair to just blame parents.

There needs to be more education/health promotion to change behaviours, plus I think supermarkets have a responsibility too. It's not right that high sugar foods are so cheap in comparison fresh produce.

Just out of curiosity, what are people's opinions in the 'sugar tax'? If foods/drinks with a night sugar content were 10% more would it deter you from buying it? If a can of coke went from 70p to 78p would that. E enough to stop you from buying it?

[user1488756360]

Sorry for all typos - trying to walk and type at same time!

[streetface]

I'm not buying it. I do judge. I do because without fail, every time I see an overweight kid I see an overweight parent. Lots of people have horrific things happen but don't feed their kids junk day in day out to get by.

I watch these kids grow up getting bullied, picked on, mocked and have hellish teenage years. Stretch marks and ruined bodies before they have even entered puberty and a lifetime of misery because the vast majority of fat kids will be fat adults.

If you starved your kids and they were underweight nobody would hesitate to tell you its abuse. If you ruin their health feeding them crap you can't even say the word 'fat'?? But that's what it is and it ruins lives.

[user3459859083590890]

I don't drink Coke often, but if I fancied a can on any given day I would pay whatever it cost (within reason!) to have it.

I suppose if a family were drinking gallons of the stuff a week, they could find that gets too expensive and it may encourage them to cut back. Or maybe to swap to a cheap cola. Tesco's do massive bottles for 17p for instance.

I am not sure some of the families we are discussing would necessarily move to a better diet as such. I think it is more likely that they would eat the same types of foods, just in whatever quantity they could afford them.

[LostPeppers]

The OP is right. We are all becoming si used to see children being bigger than they were 20 years ago that we all seem to think it's THE norm.
I have that feeling too. That is until I do back to France for the hols, see children on the beach and realise that more or less all of them are the same size or thinner than my own dcs (my dcs are on the thin side of their peers here. I have been told often that clearly dc2 is too thin. He is very normal there)

Some posters have mentioned complex sociology economical issues. Well yes thee are. More importantly I think there are some cultural issues in the uk where snacking is seen as OK. Having crisps the afternoon, biscuits etc... pudding is obligatory. And more importantly I think, the quality of the food doesn't matter. Only calories (seenthe kind of food that is served in primary schools for example).

The overall result is that most parents are totally oblivious about their dcs being too big. They only start realising there is an issue when they are obese. And then don't want to make them feel bad so dontvraise the issue (plus it means changing their attitude to food, how the are parenting etc... which is hard anyway)

[user3459859083590890]

Sorry for all typos - trying to walk and type at same time!

Wow, you've done well! Wish I had the knack to do that.

[user3459859083590890]

The lack of movement is the other side of the coin. No real way to force parents to make their kids exercise either. Taxing food is one thing, but how to get kids running about?

[NotMyPenguin]

YABU / YANBU :-)

I do get where you are coming from. Where parents have a good income, you are completely right to feel annoyed.

I disagree with PP who say this isn't linked to poverty, though. It is! Yes, it may be possible to make healthy meals relatively cheaply. However, poor parents also have to consider the hidden cost of things that don't get eaten. So in the end it's cheaper to feed children options that are often less healthy, but which you know they will eat. Unfortunately this means things with more sugar, carbs and fat. This article gives an interesting overview, based on research, which makes complete sense: www.nytimes.com/2016/02/16/opinion/why-poor-children-cant-be-picky-eaters.html?_r=0

[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.

[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..."

[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

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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)