Today I was taking my dog out for a walk when I saw some kids waiting for their school bus and some parents with them. Among them was a couple with their two kids. The son must have been around 8-9 years old and the daughter maybe 3 or 4. From their accent I could tell they had returned from the US and now settled in this affluent township and happily sending their children to the best international school in the city. The son was overweight for reasons I do not know but I guessed it could be due to sedentary habits and bad diet which most well off kids have these days.
The reason I wanted to write this post today is that I saw the mother carrying a stethescope in her hand which said she was in the medical field and yet she was feeding her little daughter instant noodles for breakfast robbing her of the vital nutrients that a growing child needs. Have parents become so busy or lazy that they do not even think anymore about what inputs they are giving to their children. Most working couples do not exercise anyway which makes their children also not know the importance of living a healthy, disease free life and on top of them they give them fast food which makes them fat and unhealthy.
It’s not something we, as parents, like to hear and yet it’s precisely what we need to realize: if our children are fat, the chances are we bear a big load of the blame. Kids aren’t the ones pulling the car into the drive-through lane at McDonald’s for dinner between dance lessons and karate practice. Again. They aren’t the ones zipping past the fruits and veggies section in favor of high-fat, calorie-dense convenience meals that promise to be ready after five minutes or less in the microwave. They don’t keep diaries crammed with the take-out menus for nearby restaurants, nor program the phone number of the pizza joint on their cell phones. Parents do.
So when it comes to wondering why our children are overweight, we need to spend a little less time looking at their chubby arms and legs and more time looking in our own mirrors. After all, we’re presumably the grown-ups. To us falls the task of saying “no.” Of making short-term decisions — like what’s for dinner — based on long-term health consequences. Of exercising the self-discipline and time management needed to prepare meals that don’t harm our kids That is our job.
The reason I wanted to write this post today is that I saw the mother carrying a stethescope in her hand which said she was in the medical field and yet she was feeding her little daughter instant noodles for breakfast robbing her of the vital nutrients that a growing child needs. Have parents become so busy or lazy that they do not even think anymore about what inputs they are giving to their children. Most working couples do not exercise anyway which makes their children also not know the importance of living a healthy, disease free life and on top of them they give them fast food which makes them fat and unhealthy.
It’s not something we, as parents, like to hear and yet it’s precisely what we need to realize: if our children are fat, the chances are we bear a big load of the blame. Kids aren’t the ones pulling the car into the drive-through lane at McDonald’s for dinner between dance lessons and karate practice. Again. They aren’t the ones zipping past the fruits and veggies section in favor of high-fat, calorie-dense convenience meals that promise to be ready after five minutes or less in the microwave. They don’t keep diaries crammed with the take-out menus for nearby restaurants, nor program the phone number of the pizza joint on their cell phones. Parents do.
So when it comes to wondering why our children are overweight, we need to spend a little less time looking at their chubby arms and legs and more time looking in our own mirrors. After all, we’re presumably the grown-ups. To us falls the task of saying “no.” Of making short-term decisions — like what’s for dinner — based on long-term health consequences. Of exercising the self-discipline and time management needed to prepare meals that don’t harm our kids That is our job.
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