- Eli Valderrama
- La Mirada, CA
- United States
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How do we as parents fight obesity among our young children when both parents work full time?
How do parents fight obesity, when both parents are working and in every corner there is a fast food restaurant that your child has to have or that commercial that makes your child cry all day until she or he has that chicken nugget. When the fast food product is cheaper and quicker to get than actually taking a trip to the local market, has parents raising their child's chances for obesity instead of taking time out of their day to help their children eat healthy.
ZX Style 20+
Because working parents know they aren't allways there for the kids and thus feel guilty about it.
Due to the guilty feelings they give in more quickly when the kid wants something like toys, food etc.
In my opinion a child requires two things to grow up.
1 A child needs attention, a parent must be there to talk to the kid about the world, about life about friendships and in your case about food and addiction.
2 A child needs rules and those should be maintained and consequenses should be followed when the kid is offending them.
If you work less you are able to do combine those two and you have extra time to make a healthy dinner.
And keep your kid from getting obese by learning him/her rules and maintaining them. And in the mean time you can give the kid the attention he/she needs.
Now it's easy for me to say because i don't know your situation and can't look into your household wallet.
But i think with buying less and giving more attention you would be equally or more happy and so would the kids.
Mary M. 100+
America's Test Kitchen, or Cooking with Julia, or Lydia's Italy (who by the way has her grandkids on there every once in a while).
When kids get excited about the fact they can cook their own meals, and you set a good example for them, the possibilities are endless.
Exercise also plays an important role.
Here is a link to an episode with Lydia and her grandchild:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbOBTph73h8
george lockwood 30+
peter lindsay 30+
Fritzie Reisner 100+
First, I will approach the "makes your child cry all day until she or he has that chicken nugget." In child rearing I am thinking most parents early on develop a parenting strategy that sends the message that crying for items in the store and so forth is absolutely ineffective as a strategy for getting the item. How does a parent deal with a child who cries because he wants that toy truck in the window? Same thing, isn't it? [Mine never did this sort of thing, so I don't have a specific strategy to recommend. I am betting parenting books and pediatricians have advice on this though!]
In terms of "fast food restaurant that your child has to have," kids can't usually walk in and buy stuff themselves at these places. If you don't want to go, would it work to try "Oh, Sweety- they put all sorts of wierd stuff in the food there- let's [ingenious counterproposal] instead" and offer some splendidly fun at home alternative.