I have 2 boys 6 & 9 and I spend the weekends playing football with them walking in the forest and down at the beach. Also play most nights when i get home from work.
We don't buy them fast food or fizzy drinks so they love fruit and vege especially picked fresh from the garden.

If as a parent you can't be bothered then your children will probably end up fat and unhrealthy.

Just passed this thread and it reflected on something I had been observing since returning to UK last year.
I left Dubai just as it had been officially declared the fattest country in the world..
Yeah even ahead of America..Anyhoo!! ..
I think I became a little desensitized to the amount of MORBIDLY obese kids running around the malls over there and put it down to their very lavish lifestyle..but,
During numerous trips to holiday resorts in my work I can honestly say I,m disgusted with how this Nanny state has changed kids health since I,ve been away

How "caring" parents can call themselves so is totally beyond my reasoning.
They clothe,educate and protect them (Suing at the first chance of correction by teachers or falling off 6" high branches at school and suchlike)
Yet the first thing they do it shove them in front of TV with their playstations and enough cholesterol laden American imported pigswill to kill your average grizzly bear..
And exercise?? what's that? Tony Hawkes BMXing or something(also on ps).

Eeee. wen I wuz a lad..
Honestly.. There wasn't a thing my parents could do to keep me IN the house..
Swimming in rivers ..AKA (Public nuisance?)
Climbing trees (Damaging public property?)
Fishing for newts (Poaching?)
Football against the back gates (Illegal ball games?)
Fireworks in turnips in the allotments (Terrorism?)

Anyone see a pattern?
Between ill informed/ignorant parents and the lack of something better to do for the police/government what incentive does a kid have to get off his rapidly increasing backside to burn off a few calories.

Where have all the fat kids gone??..Check your front rooms folks.

Tax everything yeh ?

Just get it over and done with please Mr. Government.

We all know its coming and soon everything will be taxed, why dont they do more useful things like impose a reward system instead of a punishment.

Take energy for instant, they tell us to recycle and yes a lot of people do but if you want everyone to do it, dont tax them for using a bin instead say for every 10 bottles you recycle you get so much energy free.

They go on about how recycling 1 plastic bottle saves enough energy to run a home PC for 30mins.


REWARD NOT PUNISH!!
People will take notice then.

Its a simple method, tell a kid to clean his room or you'll smack him he wont want to do it, offer him a lollipop and he'll get straight of his ass and be back before you know it.

just my view sorry its all a bit vague but im sure you all understand

Originally posted by jefwane
So astyanax are you tryint to say that it is wrong to expect a child to earn something through their sweat and labor?

No. Did I say that?

I posted those pictures to show that there is a broader dimension to the issue than just some fat kids in rich countries. I'm not preaching any sermons here.

Ok, sorry if i came off a little snide with that. I'm not the most elloquent of people at 3:00am with a toothache. It seemed like comparing apples to oranges to me at the time. And I actually though about the picture of the latin looking kids on the rock pile while i was out today and saw something with a made in Honduras label on it and decided I could live without it.

Well in the USA parent's simply do not cook there own food anymore. They either don't have the time or the knowledge on how to create there own food anymore. I am not a parent but most of the friend's that I do know basically live off of frozen food's ,hot dog's, potatoe chip's and the other typical crap that most people eat nowaday's.


I happen to come from a family where my great grandparent's were farmers on both sides of my family. My father's side were farmers up untill about 1964. My mother is an excellent cook who keeps our family tradition of healthy eating alive. I to make most of my own food and admit it takes more time to prep/cook but nobody in my family is fat.

As time progress' more people are becoming more lazy and taking the easy apporach by buying all these pre-made meals from supermarkets. People in the USA are simply lazy and complain that they don't have time to cook food but they all have plenty of time to watch TV , play video games or drink beer.


And speaking of video games, alot of children do nothing but play them. I recently bought my parents house that I grew up in and the funny thing is that I see the school bus pick up about 15 kid's in my neighborhood but I never see these kid's outside playing. When I grew up in this neighborhood there was always a large group of us playing sport's or riding bikes. I play video games myself but I'm not obssesed with them like these children are, I can't think of any other reason why all these kid's are indoor's in the middle of the summer.

""Swimming in rivers ..AKA (Public nuisance?)
Climbing trees (Damaging public property?)
Fishing for newts (Poaching?)
Football against the back gates (Illegal ball games?)
Fireworks in turnips in the allotments (Terrorism?)""


me and a friend were talking about something similar the other day.kids have so many restrictions today.they get told they watch too much tv,play too many computer games.so they leave the house and there's bloody restriction signs up everywhere!! its a catch 22 situation!