There’s a lot of buzz about kids being overweight, and not eating right. With good reason. The obesity rate among children is on the rise. Now that school is back in session, I’m hearing many sources blame childhood obesity on what kids eat in the cafeteria.
Yes, schools don’t always serve the healthiest meals. I’m not arguing that point. But most kids who eat school lunch are only eating one meal, five days a week, for nine months out of the year. Is that really enough to make them fat? Aren’t most of the calories they take in consumed outside of school?
I think rather than blaming it on the schools we need to look more closely at what kids are being fed at home. It’s a lot more likely that extra calories, over-abundant snacks and fast food are being supplied by parents.
How many times a week do kids eat drive-thru in the car while being shuttled from one activity to the next? How many kids purchase candy bars, soda and potato chips with spending money from Mom and Dad? How often do boxed dinners take the place of homemade food in an effort to save time?
Maybe we need to take a look at what’s in our own cupboards. Isn’t it our job to teach proper nutrition, and introduce good foods and eating habits to our children? Schools are for educating children, not raising them.
Also, are the kids getting enough active playtime to constitute adequate daily exercise? Not only are many eating too many potato chips, they’re eating them in front of too many TV shows.
What you think?
I defiantly think it’s the parents responsibly to see to it that their kids aren’t over weight. I’m twenty years old and as far as I am aware school meals are about the same as when I was in school, and I was NEVER over weight. Some parents spend wayyy too much money on drive thru. My step-son’s mother is the perfect example. She does not cook, instead she takes them to Mcdonalds or Taco bell every meal. Luckily my children are VERY active at this point and time, but it goes to show. I agree with your post 100%
Yes, it is the parents not the schools…especially in my area. Our local school system implemented a healthy meal plan several years ago. The only breads served are whole wheat. The only meat served is lean. You want whole milk with your lunch? Try another system because ours serves 2% and skim. Outside foot isn’t allowed unless it is packed in a lunchbox. So, you can’t bring a Burger King sack to cafeteria. Strictly forbidden. I live in Alabama, so obviously we have one of the fattest populations in the USofA. The children here are no exception. My oldest had dance class with several girls who were just plain fat. I’m not going to even bother being politically correct about it and call them healthy or big boned. These girls were fat. One of the mothers came in crying one night because the pediatrician had told her that her daughter was overweight and needed to see a nutritionist to help reduce the size of her waistline. The mother was horrified that the pediatrician had said this. She was mad enough to sue. There is another mother who, in my opinion, should be prosecuted for how obese her children are. They have four, and each of them is morbidly obese. The youngest one is a year older than my oldest. But, this child outweighs me by easily 100 pounds. In the dance recital the class wore a two piece outfit, and she had a gut hanging out of hers that made the entire audience cringe. When you have four children who are all morbidly obese and one is being treated for type 2 diabetes at college age, doesn’t this qualify as neglect or endangerment?
I totally agree it’s the parent’s fault and I am right in that mix. Though I try, twice a week we are in the drive thru between soccer practice and softball practice where there is only 15 minutes between each activity. It would be nice to have a better way but we do exercise alot!
I agree with you 100%! It is ridiculous how so many people are sitting here blaming the school lunch system. Yet, we could prevent the kids from having to eat the food provided by the schooling system by taking 5 minutes to prepare a healthy lunch and if you know you’re going to have a rushed evening, prepare a healthy, nutritious dinner ahead of time.
I’ve always said, if you have time to hop in the car, zoom through the local fast food joint, you have the time to make a home cooked meal. In the end the amount of time you sit waiting in the drive thru, passing out all the bags full of junk and hoovering it back, you could have made a great delicious meal at home and actually ate a family dinner.
No matter what, no matter how crazy and hectic our day to day lives get, we are not pulling up through the local fast food joint. Other activities can wait, family dinners first then extra activities. I’d rather have healthy, home fed kids that are late for everything then obese, fast food reliant kids.