I used to think it was a joke when folks talked about the food police banning Big Macs. But it's not a joke any more. Parents in Scotland have had their children removed because the kids are overweight. That's now considered "abuse." Is it on the horizon here? No, it's already here.This is the insanity of the culture of death where stabbing a baby in the head and sucking out his brains is a legal exercise of "choice," but buying your kid a big mac is an act of abuse. The families who have these grossly obese children need help, not a criminal record and having their kids snatched! I live in one of the fattest counties in Virginia. Is Social Services going to bring a scale to school and take all the children who are more than 100 pounds overweight? How about 50? How about 30? 25? Somebody wake me up; it must be a nightmare!
By the way, the last time I was in a public school there were vending machines filled with candy bars, chips, oreos, sugary sodas, and other unhealthy treats. Can parents with obese children sue the school system for putting temptation in their children's paths? Government nannies, heal thyselves.
Nanny state snatches kids for being too fat
Lose weight or we'll take all six of your children away: Outrage over social workers' 'draconian' ultimatum to parents
S.C. case looks on child obesity as child abuse. But is it?
It's real easy to scream "nanny state" without looking at the complexities of the issues. In the United States, "We, the people" are "our government."
ReplyDeleteFirst, I think what we are talking about is neglect. Neglect of providing a healthy diet. A 555 pound 14 year old falls under the kind of abuse that does justify being removed. His life depends on change, which he is not getting at home.
And as for the junk food in the school vending machines: They were placed in there as a way to make money for the budget starved schools. I personally don't believe they have any place in school. But let me ask you this: Are you willing to replace the income they provide the schools with your taxes?
You're kidding right?
ReplyDeleteGive the schools more taxes? When they are using our tax money to indoctrinate kids in the gay lifestyle with their gay-straight clubs and turning them into little sex pots with condom-on-the-banana sex ed?
Oh...and teaching them how to be good little muslims getting on their prayer rugs and praying to Allah?
When they're purging textbooks of the truth about our founders and the founding documents and replacing the facts with politically correct nonsense?
I've been fighting the garbage in the public school system most of my adult life. All you have to do is study the NEA and AFT to see their agenda which has nothing to do with education and everything to do with power and liberal politics.
As for funding: parochial schools can educate kids at a fraction of the cost of the failed public school system. Throwing money at the schools obviously is not the answer. A little competition wouldn't hurt. Do you support school choice with a voucher program that puts parents in control of their children's education?
No Mary, I'm not kidding. Interesting that you would focus a whole rant on that part of my statement which addresses the cause of the junk food machines being in schools in the first place and NOT address the original issue of grossly obese children and child neglect.
ReplyDeleteI do not wish to engage you / or anyone else in subjects other than child abuse.
ReplyDeleteMy apologies offered for bringing up the vending machines.
I don't know whether it's child neglect or not and neither do you. Individual cases would have to be examined to see what causes the obesity. There are medical conditions that parents cannot control, for example.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, the entire country has an obesity problem and I'm not sure equating it with "abuse" or "neglect" is particularly useful. Much of the problem has to do with our forms of entertainment. Kids used to organize pickup baseball games. Now they play world of warcraft.
As for my comment being a "rant" everything I mentioned is happening in the schools and all abuse the children in their formative years.
As for my reply, I focused on your question. I presumed you seriously expected an answer.
A 14 year old child does not get to be 555 pounds without the assistance of parents who have at the very least enabled the child to consume grossly unreasonable amounts of food. It is a fact that it takes calories to add weight. Science tells us the more calorie intake, the more weight.
ReplyDeleteAs a parent, it is my responsibility to ensure my children eat healthy food and reasonable amounts of it. At half that size (275 pounds) they should have sought out professional help. By allowing this child to consume the amount of food required to gain that kind of weight, they have altered their child's way of life and life expectancy with the health problems that are sure to follow. I find that neglectful.
The whole country doesn't have a weight problem the magnitude of this child's. Children do still play sports. I live by a park with four baseball fields and a tennis court. Every weekend I can't park in front of my house because of the many people who have taken time out of their lives to become involved with their children's sport activities. When adults exhibit an active lifestyle, their children are more likely to emulate one.
I don't disagree with anything you said here, but I don't think criminalizing parents is the answer.
ReplyDeleteWe're living in a society where appetites are out of control on a lot of levels whether it's the appetite for food, sex, money, alcohol, drugs, power.... You name it. Those things are all unhealthy whether physically or spiritually.
I'm not sure what the answer is. It would be interesting to know what track record there is with those taken from their parents. If they are already using food for comfort what will the trauma of removing them from the home do?
We'd better be sure the cure isn't worse than the disease.
Nothing changes unless something changes. When parental behavior is so neglectful that it puts the child's life at stake, then the state has the right to take that child into protective custody. As someone who was never removed from an horrific home environment, I can tell you there are many things worse than the state intervening on behalf of the child.
ReplyDeleteBTW, I find your title "ALERT: Stopping at McDonald's may be child abuse!" to be misleading and trivializing of such a serious subject matter.