child obesity

There are of course many things that parents can do to their children that are obviously irresponsible and detrimental. One thing, however, that I believe goes far too overlooked is the issue of child obesity and the irresponsibility of parents therein. I'm sure there are some genetic and other uncontrollable factors that could account for some of these cases, but most certainly the parents are at the heart of the problem. Let me preface that I'm not talking about some children who may be a little overweight. I'm talking about kids who could, save for political correctness, be called fat; that their overweight-ness has progressed to the point of being unhealthy.

How is it responsible parenting to allow one's 6 year old to be 20lbs overweight? Children at that age, like it or not, are not entirely capable on their own to know what it is exactly that they need in order to function the most effectively and to foster optimum growth. Parents on the other hand possess this knowledge. Therefore, this issue is directly under the umbrella of what they're responsible for.

One reason, perhaps, as to why some parents don't have a sense of urgency when it comes to monitoring their kids' weight is that fat children of a certain age are generally no less happy than those that are not. The concept of peer pressure, social acceptance, and physical appearance hasn't maturely developed at this point. Kids like kids because they are kids. A child's self-awareness, too, isn't maturely developed at this point either. An overweight child's brain hasn't developed to the point at which they can say to themselves while looking in the mirror, "Wow, I am fat and can imagine that I don't look appealing to my peers, male and female." But, the time is not far off when children's brains start to develop a more acute sense of awareness when it comes to this. Soon, the fat kid is the one who is made fun of; the one who doesn't get any kisses on the cheek from the girls on the playground; and is the one who starts to feel worse about themselves because of the former. But is it their fault?

Parents must look ahead to what their child will face given a particular course of action. A child is fed ice-cream for the first time. The child likes what they taste. They ask for it again. The frequency grows until parents must make a choice: can we say no, only to see a child become angry, whiny, and seemingly unhappy when all it is is just a bowl of ice cream afterall; or do we say yes because we fear their unhappiness, thus creating a snowball effect which makes it increasingly hard to say no in the future, thus the child becomes increasingly overweight, but still happy, so we don't have the heart to say no? All children deserve the same opportunities in growing up healthily, both physically and emotionally, in this regard.