Few people take responsibility for their own actions and choose to put the blame on others or hold them responsible for their own inability or unwillingness to not manage their own lives or that of their children.
How does a 5 year old afford to go to McDonald's and eat a Big Mac? Answer, their parents take them and buy them whatever they want.
Not that I am a regular viewer of Dr. Phil or Oprah or any other talk shows but I caught a couple of minutes of Dr Phil yesterday or perhaps the previous day when parents of a 5 year old were claiming that their daughter's weight problem was medical.
While there were some underlying conditions which would contribute to her weight gain as the foods she was given didn't satisfy her appetite it was clearly a problem in what her parents were feeding her that contributed the greatest to her being 90 pounds at 5 years of age.
Both parents were clearly overweight themselves however when Dr Phil read what they were feeding their daughter, it was a menu mostly of sugars and carbs from pizza to hamburgers to french fries with some mention of vegetables and fruits in between.
We have choices for ourselves but we make choices for our children. No one drags or forces parents into McDonald's for lunch but it is convenient and provides a place where the kids can have a bit of fun while mom cools off from her daily chores for a few minutes. Certainly a lot easier than driving home and making a healthy meal and why bother trying to convince your child to eat a salad at McDonald's when you know you can buy their love with a cheeseburger, fries and a coke.
So now your 5 year old is 10 and 50 pounds overweight. Don't take any responsibility yourself for this, instead hold McDonald's responsible for forcing you to feed all that crap to her and hold the government responsible for allowing McDonald's to exist.
Better yet a government solution by suggesting that we print the number of calories on the hamburger wrapper so when your child is eating their hamburger, you can read what's in it (upside down of course) and then feeling guilty you can rip that mass of cholestral right out of their mouth and feel good for saving them from a life of obesity. Or you can choose to not go to McDonald's or go once in a while as a special treat.
I meet people everyday who have every excuse for why they fail but do nothing about improving their lives. This will never change for those people. These people not only have excuses but pass the blame for their failure onto others.
Lets keep physical education in our schools, extracurricular sports and keep the junk food out. Hold parents responsible for bringing up their children and lets stop taking the easy way out.
Living takes work. Living right makes that work a lot easier not only for us but also for our children so a little short term pain for long term gain. Take responsibility for our actions especially those actions that affect our children and make those actions positive ones.
__________________ Two heads are better than one, but one neck is better than two!   | 
Is This the Face of Childhood Obesity? 
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