Reply #55: yer right of course

[SmokingJacket]

but the world has changed. If your parents were benignly neglectful in the old days (50s-80s), you just watched TV till you got sick of the game shows, then ran around outside until it got dark (my childhood, more or less). Now it's harder to run around, because all the other kids are inside with their cable TV/computer/video games. In the old days, McDonald's was a treat; now the food is actually a lot CHEAPER than real food.

My point is, in the old days, it was easier to be healthy. Nowadays it takes WORK. You have to be an active, involved, slightly obsessed parent to make sure your kid doesn't get fat. I don't let my kids watch TV, because it's so much more appealing than it was in my day -- and they can't tear away from it. So they play outside a lot, but since NO ONE else in the neighborhood is out there, there are fewer eyes to watch my kids, and I have to do it all myself. Raising kids the old fashioned way is hard -- not just a matter of letting them run wild.

I'm not making excuses for anyone. Letting your kids get fat is CRUEL and, I believe, child abuse. (Except in the cases where there's a metabolic problem of course.) But it's not a simple problem that will be solved by telling people to lay off the shakes.

Getting the crap out of school lunches is a start. Increasing PE will help too.