Your Child is Obese and It’s Your Fault

Today I read a blog with this title, and let me tell you it left me fuming.

I was irritated enough I even left a comment. Maybe its because I am an angry person or maybe its because I have struggled with this fear for awhile but I am happy to say that while reading one of the commentors I found a lot of piece. But more about that later.

This blog post discussed that as parents we are responsible for our children, agreed. We are also responsible for feeding our children, again agreed. Schools should not do as much parenting as we are allowing them to do, um weird but ok I get where your going. And then she condemned all the parents out there for giving their child soda, cookies, any junk food. She then said you are what you eat so if your child is overweight/obese its because you as a parent have failed them and are making bad choices for them. She then also said if us as parents would stop and teach our children portion control they would be the appropriate healthy size. She also explained that she feel ok to judge because someone has to in order to create a change. That got me thinking.

My daughter is beautiful, sweet, gentle, loving and kind. She is also however overweight, but she eats healthier than any other toddler her age I know. Every morning she eats two scrambled eggs with peppers, mushrooms and onions. She loves pizza but we make her eat the supreme because it has veggies and meat on it. She is not allowed to snack, and each meal has to be pre-measured and have the correct protein to carb ratio. Moral of the story my daughter eats very healthy well balanced meals. Yet she is still overweight. I may struggle with this thought because sometimes I feel guilty that it is because she isn't active enough but honestly how many two year olds can you tell to go run 2 miles and they will. We go on walks, or play outside a lot she is just a little chunkier.

Anyway after reading her post I posted my response and fell upon a gem of a response from someone else. This lovely lady stated, that she was so glad that blog lady was attempting to help people become more active and make healthier choices. However blog ladies tone was completely inappropriate because she is not aware of all the underlying circumstances with every child. What she was doing was actually harmful to the parents and children out their. Judgment should never be allowed, because it will make some parents feel superior to others and that is oppression. To make a long story short it got me thinking about how important it is to love and cherish everyone no matter what they look like. That chubby kid may have a health problem that causes him/her to be heavier. Or that tiny girl/guy may have an eating disorder. It is never our place to judge because being the person watching or feeling that happen to one of your children is one of the worst feelings ever. 

In other news we went to Holland, Michigan this past weekend to enjoy the beach. The beach was gorgeous and we all had a blast. We also met a lovely family that kept offering to let us borrow their stuff, an umbrella a chair. Any food if we were hungry. Faith in humanity restored. I will never see this family again but I really hope one day I can be as awesome, sweet and kind as this family from Dearborn, Michigan they truly were amazing.