My Saturday morning reading revealed some disturbing public service-type videos on good ol' YouTube (via Grist). I guess there are lots of folks out there who are framing feeding kids junk food as child abuse. Excuse me?
Any person who really experienced child abuse would tell you that going to McDonald's for a Happy Meal was not part of it. I worry that this is another example of blame shifting for chronic health problems to the folks who are already getting the raw deal. Why are we blaming parents for taking advantage of convenience foods to feed their families? Hell, we've been sold the idea since we were kids that the right to drive-thru at Krispy Kreme is the pinnacle of a developed society!
Folks, let's put our creative energy into shifting policies that allow selling crap as nutrition. Let's continue to educate folks about how to optimize the well-being and health of our children, instead of making anyone who feeds their kid french fries out to be a monster.
Interesting article, but minor question... why is it accompanied by a picture of Red Fraggle? :-)
Right! It's ludicrous to think that obesity is a type of child abuse. Afterall, what wouldn't constitute child abuse when raising a child? How about feeding her at the rate of 1% over her daily nominal caloric intake? How about putting him to his room when he misbehaves? Were would it end?
Parents want what's best for their kids, so they're usually an easy sell.
Thanks for the comments. I have no idea why I used the Red Fraggle image. I generally just seek out compelling images that somehow remind me of the topic at hand. I'm sure we could pull the Red Fraggle selection apart in a therapy session! ;-)