Couch potato kids...
Summer is around the corner! In the age of video games, computers and lots of television...and fast food...I see heavier and heavier children at much younger ages in the schools. It's scary actually. Type 2 diabetes in second grade? I have also seen fifth graders with high blood pressure. What can we do?!?! As parents we can get our own arses off the couch and take our kids outdoors. Ride bikes, play tennis...go for walks and to the parks! We can also stock our kitchens with healthy foods and snacks. Eat out less and cook healthy, easy to prepare foods at home! I know how hard it is as an adult to lose weight...I can't imagine a child (like this one in this article) who has to battle this at this age. The entire family should make a lifestyle change. C'mon America ! Wake up !
I was still overweight as a kid, though. I ate better than my sister, was way more active, and was still a fatty. She, on the other hand, was a stick.
But hey, at least I can out-run her, fat rolls and all.
Edited to add: I do have to say that my kids are still really young (6 & 1) so I don't have to worry about video games yet, but hopefully I never will have to!
But I do think it's really sad how many severely obese kids there are. It's becoming a problem in many countries now I think... not just America. There needs to be more focus on healthy eating (school lunches are atrocious;too many unhealthy snacks at home) and not playing video games all the time. When I was a kid, EVERYONE played at least one sport. In the summer, we lived at the swimming pool.
A boring story that just happened on Sat.: My middle girl just turned 5 and her resturant dinner or choice was to go to Burger King. In front of us in line were two kids one was a girl that was 9 and the other was a 13 year old boy (their mom and I talked for a minute about our kids while waiting in line). Both her children were on the heavy side and the girl was three times the size of my 8 year old. When they got to order the girl ordered a whopper combo with cheese and upped the fries and coke, the boy ordered a triple whopper combo with cheese and upped fries and coke. I almost fell on the floor! Even when I was eating anything and everything I couldn't eat a triple whopper as an adult! Their mom just paid for it didn't say anything!
My kids always get the thumbs up from their doctor's every visit. BUT we don't have cable TV and they willingly spend time outside and LIVE at the Y swimming pool in the summer. (Seriously there is a water park that they visit everyday!) I'm not a perfect mom but my kids are VERY fit and active.
My mom made me play outside. Not as drastically as CD's mom, but couch-potatohood was strictly prohibited. I didn't get my chub on until I started highschool, at which point my life consisted of snack food and homweork.
When I was a kid, I preferred playing outside. Had I not though, I am sure my mother would have mad me. We were also restricted to a certain amount of tv a day and were forced to turn the tv off and sit down as a family for dinner. Its funny though, some of our most favorite toys were huge boxes. My mother bought a new water heater, stove and fridge all at the same time. So, we had 3 really large boxes and I think we played with those things for well over a month. Built forts, rolled down hills in them. We eventually turned them into "armor" and my brother convinced me that it would protect me all while he beat the **** out of me with a stick. Never ever believe that! Oh and we would get in our handy dandy radio flyer wagon and shove each other down hills into trees. It is a wonder how we never broke any bones. I think that parents these days are just plain lazy. Children are going to learn from the environments they are placed in.
Hey do they still give those cool crowns away with a kids meal at Burger King? Those were awesome!!
I was another kid who was chunky but active. My mom enrolled us in day camp all summer long, so one week it was basketball camp, the next was soccer, then tennis, etc. If we were lucky we got something non-active like radio camp thrown in for a week, but in general we were moving non-stop June-August. And when we got home from camp at the end of the day, the other neighborhood kids were out riding bikes and rollerblading, so we did that too. We had a Sega Genesis (I still love Sonic the Hedgehog!), but it was in my parents' room and we could only play it like two hours a week.
But I was still fat. *shrugs* I think that was a problem with my nutrition, not with exercise. Probably it's the same with these kids too. Even more than exercising, a proper diet needs to be addressed.
Mintberrykin, that story is NUTS, btw! How can anyone stand by and watch their kids eat like that!
EDIT: They have those crowns at some BKs, but not all... I used to love those things as a kid! And I loved those cute Happy Meal boxes with the arch shaped handles! Last time I was at McDonald's like three years ago, the Happy Meals came in bags. :-(
The Triple Whopper weighs in at a stellar 1230 Calories.
The calorie breakdown:
82 grams fat (incl. 32 grams Saturated Fat)
52 grams carbs
71 grams protein
1590 mg sodium
Nat: My kids didn't get the crowns this time, but we don't go to BK that much, maybe twice a year. They were cool to get when I was a kid though!
It seems like parents today are so freaking terrified of anything happening to little Johnny they would rather he sat on his tush and played video games inside rather than playing outside like we did when we were kids. At least then they can keep an eye on him.
It's all over the news every day - pedophiles, flesh eating viruses, deadly playground equipment, the list goes on and on... Everyone wants their kids wrapped in bubble wrap so they never have to experience any pain, but they don't ever get to experience life either.... Sad.
Reporting them and reporting on them has - which serves to scare the bejeebers out of parents.
I know I was always told to "go outside and play" and if I said I didn't want to - I got to go outside and weed the garden instead.
Soooo... in honor of the soda pop post - does anyone here call it a sofa potato? Futon potato? Davenport potato?? LOL!!
Original Post by fuzzys:
It seems like parents today are so freaking terrified of anything happening to little Johnny they would rather he sat on his tush and played video games inside rather than playing outside like we did when we were kids. At least then they can keep an eye on him.
It's all over the news every day - pedophiles, flesh eating viruses, deadly playground equipment, the list goes on and on... Everyone wants their kids wrapped in bubble wrap so they never have to experience any pain, but they don't ever get to experience life either.... Sad.
Well, if you send your kids out alone...sure. Anything can happen nowadays. Times HAVE changed. BUT...parents can still make time to do activites WITH their children. It doesn't have to cost a lot either. It's good for the whole family!
hahaha Sofa Potato. I would look at someone like they were an idiot if they attempted to call it a sofa potato. I might actually be inclined to ask if they were referring to a meal time side dish. Its a flippin Couch Potato!! Who came up with that terminology. What does a potato have to do with something that is lazy and life less.
They still give out the crowns if you ask them for one. I get one every time I go to BK, which is usually.. six or seven times a month? Yeah, I'm terrible.
BUT...parents can still make time to do activites WITH their children. It doesn't have to cost a lot either. It's good for the whole family!
Bleh! Who has time for THAT??? :)
Original Post by fuzzys:
BUT...parents can still make time to do activites WITH their children. It doesn't have to cost a lot either. It's good for the whole family!
Bleh! Who has time for THAT??? :)
Yeah, I had kids so as I could have a tax write-off ! Play with them??? Ugh!
Sofa potato, lol.
Original Post by trhawley:
Tax write-off? I thought people had kids to get a raise in their welfare checks.
Sofa potato, lol.
Well, in any case, the video games and junk food keep them out of your hair pretty much. I call them on my cell once in a while from the bar to see how they are doing.
